


questions in a world of blue

by ladyandromeda



Category: The X-Files, Twin Peaks
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Possession, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 12:18:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11828598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyandromeda/pseuds/ladyandromeda
Summary: It's been ten years since Special Agent Dale Cooper vanished from the town of Twin Peaks. No one in Audrey's department of the FBI will acknowledge him, or what happened in that quiet little town in the mountains.So, when two agents named Fox Mulder and Dana Scully reopen the case, Audrey can't help but follow their progress. She knows Agent Cooper isn't dead. He's in her dreams, every night - willing her to come and find him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy my Twin Peaks/The X Files crossover fic! This is something that's been on my mind for a while and The Return (2017) is what finally spurred me into writing my ideas down. While I can appreciate what this new season has to add to the mythology of Twin Peaks - the continued lack of a resolution for all these characters, and Agent Cooper specifically, is keeping me awake at night. 
> 
> If I can't get any peace of mind from David Lynch, I'll get it myself... goddammit. will be posting bits and pieces inspired by the fic over on my tumblr: http://reginalds.tumblr.com/tagged/questions-in-a-world-of-blue

He didn't know how much time had passed since he had entered the Black Lodge in search of Annie Blackburn. It was a kind of purgatory - a waiting room, as the strange man from his dreams had told him - where everything was still and the passage of time was a complete mystery. He could get up, leave the room, come back, and not know how long he'd been gone. It could have been seconds - it could have been weeks. There was no way to tell.

People passed through the waiting room, without speaking to him. They moved so fast and, when they spoke, their mouths moved without making a sound. One day, Laura arrived. But it wasn't the Laura he had met before, who kissed him and told him her secrets. In her eyes was such a depth of wisdom, love, and sadness beyond her years. Although they had never met, in life, there was a spark of instant recognition in them both.

He comforted her as she wept. And, when it was time, he led her to the next place. He hoped she would find peace there. He could not follow, no matter how hard he tried. There was something still tying him to the world outside the Black Lodge.

He had seen his doppelganger leave, with Annie. Perhaps he could not leave until his doppelganger returned. But why would he? What ties could he have to this place, when he seemed so eager to leave? The other Laura had said "I'll see you again in twenty-five years". Would he have to wait that long for the answers to his questions?

There was nothing else he could do. So he waited. He watched people coming and going. He drank his coffee and listened to the stillness and quiet of the waiting room.

One day, the silence was broken. There was a flash of red, the click of a heel. Dale Cooper smiled.

  
**10:48am. March 18th. 1999. FBI Headquarters, Washington, DC.**

  
Special Agent Audrey Horne hung up her desk phone and rubbed her temples with her fingertips, sighing deeply. She could feel a headache coming on; along with that familiar ringing in her ear that had been troubling her, on and off, ever since the explosion at the Twin Peaks bank ten years ago.

The day had only just begun and she'd already spoken to three loud and irritating suspects over the phone - all with mixed results. She enjoyed her job, she appreciated the investigative aspect of it, but sometimes she wished she'd kept her place as the first in line to inherit her father's businesses rather than handing it all over to her mother. Her hometown, with its rolling fogs and secretive residents, seemed so far away these days.

The suspects she had spoken to were all clear, except one. She wanted to speak to him in person to confirm her suspicions. But this case wasn't a part of her regular workload. She'd taken it on from a superior in another office and was barely managing to get it done in the time he had given her.

Everything she'd seen and heard in the past week proved the man's guilt. It just didn't feel like it was enough. She wanted more evidence. But field work and interviews of suspects took time - time that she did not have.

"Agent Horne?"

Audrey looked up to find her friend and colleague, Agent Morgan, approaching her desk with a folder under his arm and a coffee in hand.

"Hey, Morgan," she replied, managing a small smile.

"I got those files you wanted on Jonathan and Marie Sands."

She took the file and opened it on her desk, quickly scanning the documents and photographs. "You're a doll."

"And, it's after 10:30, so I thought I'd bring you another coffee," he said, placing the coffee cup on the desk. "From Mrs. D's cafe, not the cafeteria. One sugar. Black."

"Marry me, Agent Morgan."

He laughed. "Nah, you only want me for my access to files above your pay grade and coffee deliveries."

"Not for your dashing good looks?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow teasingly.

"Oh. For that, too. Of course. Coffee, files, rugged handsomeness."

Audrey took a grateful sip of her coffee and looked back down at the Sands case file. "What more could a woman want?"

"Is that more work for Skinner?" Agent Morgan asked, motioning to the file.

"No, but I've almost finished the case he gave me last week." She paused. "I just can't seem to nail the guy. All of the suspects are total creeps, I wish I could have all of them arrested - guilty or not."

"I'm sure you'll get 'em, eventually."

She sighed. "I can only try."

"Hey, do you know Agent Mulder?" Morgan asked.

Audrey's brow puckered in thought. She'd heard about him at college, but under a different pseudonym. "You mean Spooky Mulder?"

"Yeah," he replied. "He came by my office yesterday."

"What for?"

"He wanted to know about Twin Peaks."

  
**12:38pm. March 18th. 1999. FBI Headquarters, Washington, DC.**

  
Audrey stepped out of the elevator and looked down the dimly lit hallway. Mulder's office was on the basement level - the first door on the left, according to Agent Morgan. After completing the morning's load of work, she had decided to pay a visit to Agent Mulder. If he had taken out the file on Twin Peaks, perhaps he had found some new leads in relation to the murders and the disappearance of Special Agent Dale Cooper.

The dusty shelves in the hallway gave off a scent like a used bookstore. They were filled with stacks and stacks of boxes, all covered with a thin layer of dust. Everything seemed to be from a time long before Agent Horne had come to the FBI. It was much quieter on the basement level than it was upstairs. She appreciated the silence, after the loud rush that had been her morning. The ring in her ear was already starting to calm down.

She took a sharp left at the end of the hallway and stopped at an unmarked door. It was half open, but she still knocked. "Agent Mulder?"

No answer. She pushed the door open slightly and peered inside. It was a large office with a desk at the back and shelves and filing cabinets like the ones in the hallway outside. Every available surface seemed to be covered with folders, photographs, articles, and books.

On the back wall was a pin board filled with newspaper clippings and photographs of mysterious, unexplained events. UFOs, the Loch Ness monster, Big Foot. Blurry images of humanoid figures, wandering through the woods. A night sky with a stunning bright light in the distance - too large to be a star, too oddly shaped to be an aircraft. A poster with a UFO drifting above a landscape of trees and the words "I WANT TO BELIEVE" in bold white print.

Audrey's gaze shifted back to the desk. Her eyes had been drawn to a familiar photograph, sitting atop one of the many documents strewn across the surface. She stepped inside, towards the desk. It was Laura Palmer's homecoming portrait. That smile, those empty eyes. Audrey knew them all too well.

"Can I help you?" A voice asked from behind her.

She turned. A man, in his mid to late thirties, stood in the doorway with a small paper bag clutched at his side and a plastic fork behind his ear.

"I'm sorry, the door was open," she replied, moving away from the desk. "Are you Agent Mulder?"

He stepped inside, dumping the paper bag on the desk while eyeing Audrey. "Depends who's asking."

"I'm Special Agent Horne."

"Horne..." His brow puckered. "Any relation to Benjamin Horne?"

Audrey frowned. Her father seemed to follow her wherever she went, especially at the FBI. "Yes, he's my father."

"You don't seem too proud of that, Agent Horne."

"He's been on the run for seven years." She paused, watching Mulder's reaction carefully. "Tax fraud and embezzlement."

He frowned. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Audrey replied, forcing a smile. "But I didn't come here to talk about him."

Agent Mulder sat down, watching her intently. "Alright, Agent Horne, I'll bite. What brings you to my dark corner of the FBI?"

Audrey fiddled with the strap of her handbag. Laura's photograph smiled up at her - her eyes dark as the secrets they kept. Hardly anyone had seen the file on Twin Peaks and the murders that had occured there. The colours in the photographs had started to fade, over the years. Like a memory that is lost slowly, slowly, and then all at once.

"I wanted to know what your interest is in the Twin Peaks case."

Mulder nodded and spread his hands out over his desk, brushing the files with his fingertips. "Yeah, I thought that was why you were here. You were in Twin Peaks, weren't you? When Laura Palmer was murdered?"

"I went to high school with Laura."

"Did you know her?" He asked.

"It's a small town, everyone knew her." She replied with an impatient sigh. "You haven't answered my question, Agent Mulder."

"I'm interested in the case. Of course I am, most of it remains unsolved. And," he paused, picking up a letter from the desk and handing it to her, "most of it was covered up by an unknown party."

Audrey looked over the letter. She'd seen it before - she'd seen everything in that file. It was a letter from Gordon Cole to Albert Rosenfield. It was something about Annie Blackburn and Major Briggs, but most of the sentences had been blacked out. And it wasn't the only document in the file that was like that.

"I think this all has something to do with the disappearance of Agent Cooper."

Audrey looked up at the sound of that name. "What do you know about Agent Cooper?"

Mulder shrugged. "I know as much as you do. He was there to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer. He was in Twin Peaks for six months, before he disappeared suddenly. The documents in this file that were made before he went missing are exhaustive, there is not a single detail or letter missing. But once he disappeared, the investigations ceased,"

Mulder produced more documents like the one he had given her, spreading them out on the desk like a tableau. "Multiple dates are missing, details are blacked out, entire files are referenced but nowhere to be found here or anywhere in the FBI."

Audrey shook her head. "This isn't news, Agent Mulder. When I came to the FBI, I immediately went looking for any information on Twin Peaks. What you see before you is all I could find."

"But what were they covering up? What did they have to hide?"

"I don't know. I wish I could tell you what happened, but I just don't know." She replied, almost whispering.

Mulder sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "I've seen this before. I've seen incomplete files and half destroyed documents. There's always a reason why they're like that. Don't you want to know what that reason is?"

Audrey bit her lip, considering her options. Behind those blacked out words and faded images was something she had missed that had somehow sparked the interest of Fox Mulder. If he could see something she could not, then maybe that would be enough to get the investigation reopened by the FBI. She stared back at him, across the desk, and answered, "Yes."

  
**9:15pm. March 18th. 1999. Agent Horne's apartment building. Washington, DC.**

  
Audrey stifled a yawn as she stepped into the elevator of her building. She'd stayed back late at work, pouring over the files Morgan had given her. There was nothing they could tell her that she didn't already know, but Special Agent Horne always preferred to be thorough.

Tomorrow, she would bring the evidence to her superiors. And, on her way back to her desk, she would stop by to see Assistant Director Skinner and ask for some more time to work on his case. She wanted to visit the suspects in person. It was likely that he would not approve, but at that moment she was too exhausted to care.

The meeting with Agent Mulder still weighed heavily on her mind. If his office decor had anything to say about him, it seemed that he was everything her peers at the academy said he was. He was obsessed with cases that involved unexplained phenomena and the possible intervention of extraterrestrials. He even eventually reopened an old unit of the FBI called 'The X Files', where he could work exclusively on such cases.

But, with all of this in mind, what was it about Twin Peaks that had caught his attention? Laura Palmer wasn't a regular girl, but what happened to her had happened before - countless times - and would continue to happen as long as there is evil in this world. It was an unsolved case, with elements of the evidence inexplicably covered up by the FBI. Maybe he just wanted to be the one to finally crack the mystery of that town, after all these years?

Whatever Mulder's interest in Twin Peaks was - it made her uncomfortable, somehow. Like he was a tourist, watching from the outside without the commitment or passion that she had. He could stop looking, if he wanted to. His attachment to the case was merely a fascination. But she could never stop looking. Agent Cooper's absence was always on her mind.

It touched her, in ways she could not predict.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been ten years since Special Agent Dale Cooper vanished from the town of Twin Peaks. No one in Audrey's department of the FBI will acknowledge him, or what happened in that quiet little town in the mountains.
> 
> So, when two agents named Fox Mulder and Dana Scully reopen the case, Audrey can't help but follow their progress. She knows Agent Cooper isn't dead. He's in her dreams, every night - willing her to come and find him.

**3:02am. March 19th. 1999. Agent Horne's apartment. Washington, DC.**

  
Audrey was alone, in the backwoods of Twin Peaks. When she looked up, the foliage and branches were so dense that she could not see the sky. The trees around her seemed to go on forever. And they were singing. The wind, whispering through the branches, made such a beautiful sound. It seemed to grow louder and louder, the deeper Audrey went into the woods.

She'd had this dream before. Almost every night, she returned to Twin Peaks to walk alone in the woods. Until she found him. Agent Cooper, standing alone in a clearing just up ahead. She called his name, but he did not answer. She started moving towards him, but he turned and walked away.

No matter how fast she ran, each night, she could never catch up with him. The woods were endless. The hum of the wind in the trees seemed to be in her head, rather than around her. It echoed through her brain, long after she finally woke from her dream.

  
**12:35pm. March 19th. 1999. FBI Headquarters. Washington, DC.**

  
Audrey stepped out of the elevator and sighed as she surveyed the dusty lower floor of the FBI Headquarters. Agent Mulder had called her at her desk, insisting that she come visit him at her nearest convenience. He had something he wanted to show her and refused to give anything away over the phone. So, after reporting to her supervisor and leaving a message with Assistant Director Skinner's receptionist, she had made her way back down to the basement of the FBI to see what he had uncovered since her last visit.

She wasn't allowing herself to get her hopes up - at least, not yet, anyway. Whatever he had found was likely something she had already discovered, years ago. Every avenue of investigation, every connection at the FBI, every shred of evidence - had been exhausted by Audrey. It was difficult to imagine there being anything left to discover about the town of Twin Peaks and the disappearance of Dale Cooper - especially by an outsider.

She found Agent Mulder standing at an overhead projector in his office, with his head bent in thought. The images and words of the documents laid out before him were reflected in his round glasses, so Audrey could not read his expression. She tapped her knuckles on the door to catch his attention.

He looked up and smiled. "Hey, that was quick."

"I'm on my lunch break," she replied. "I'm surprised you aren't?"

"No rest for the wicked." Mulder motioned for her to come in, while rearranging the documents on the projector. "Besides, what I've got to show you is much more riveting than stale sandwiches and flat coffee from the cafeteria."

"What did you find?" She asked.

Mulder raised an eyebrow and flicked on the projector. An image of a man, standing by the window of a gas station with his back turned, flooded the screen hanging from the ceiling of Mulder's office.

Audrey scanned the shelves, the window, and the man for anything identifiable. It was a regular gas station, one of millions in the country. She couldn't even guess where it was located, based on what she could see. But, before she could say anything, Agent Mulder replaced the photograph on the projector and another image appeared. The same man, in the same gas station, except he was looking back over his shoulder.

Audrey gasped.

"It's him, isn't it?" Mulder asked, in a tone that suggested he already knew the answer to that question.

She nodded, a hand hovering over her mouth. It didn't seem like a recent picture - his face had not aged a day since she last saw him. He was wearing a button down plaid shirt over jeans with a dark jacket slung over his arm. The shirt was familiar, she'd seen him wear it once or twice while he was suspended from the FBI.

"This was taken days after his disappearance at a gas station near the Canadian border. It's the last known image of him, that I could find." He said, leaning back against his desk. "He might have crossed the border, but I can't be sure. He hasn't shown up on any records of immigrants from the USA in that period in 1989.

"He wasn't the first agent to disappear while working this case," Mulder continued. He swapped the image of Agent Cooper for a battered old document. It was a missing persons report. The image, taped to the corner of the page, was of a dark haired man with harsh eyes. "Agent Desmond went missing on February 11th in 1988. I can't find anything on the FBI's search for him, it's like he never existed. I had to get this report through unofficial channels."

"He was one of the agents investigating the Teresa Banks murder?"

"He was, although I can't find any of their reports on the case. I know they left Philadelphia on February 10th after Teresa's body was found the night before. I know they inspected the body and questioned her landlord. But that's all I could dig up."

Audrey's gaze hovered over the CTV image of Cooper, sitting on Mulder's desk. As soon as she came to the FBI, she went looking for the report on his disappearance. But it did not exist. It had absolutely devastated her.

She looked up. "I've asked you this question already, but I'm going to ask it again. And this time I want an honest answer. What is your interest in this case?"

He shrugged. "Unsolved cases are kind of a hobby."

"No," she shook her head. "Not good enough."

"There's just... an unusual feeling about this case," he said, looking over at her. "Two agents don't just disappear without a trace. Something happened to them. Something took them. When the FBI erased the files on these agents, they were trying to hide something. I want to find out what that is."

"You say 'something' like they weren't taken by a human being."

"Well," he laughed. "I'd be surprised if it wasn't a 'something', for once."

Audrey sighed. She was tired of dealing with Agent Mulder. When she spoke to him, it felt like he was withholding more information than he was giving. The images of Dale were so important to her, and yet they presented more questions than they answered.

"I'm not in this for kicks, Agent Horne." His serious tone caught her attention and she looked back over at him. "I want to help. It's been ten years, it's time to find out what happened to Agent Cooper."

Audrey gave a snort of derision. "It was time to find out what happened to him ten years ago, but no one ever bothered looking for him."

"Do you remember when he went missing?" Mulder asked.

"I was in a coma, in hospital, after an explosion at the bank," She replied, subconsciously reaching up to smooth her hair over the hearing aid in her right ear. Her cuts and bruises from the explosion healed, eventually, but her hearing never fully returned. "When I woke up he was long gone and no one would tell me anything about what had happened. I expected the worst."

Mulder nodded. They stood in silence, lost in their own thoughts. The projector's light flickered - Agent Desmond's face flashing in and out of view. The missing person's report listed menial facts about him. His height, weight, hair colour, age. It was a cold receipt of a man's life, betraying nothing of his countenance or family or what made him smile.

Audrey wondered if there was ever a missing person report on Agent Cooper, before all information on his disappearance was hidden or destroyed by the FBI. Wherever it was, whatever it said about him, she did not want to see it.

The phone on Mulder's desk rang. He picked it up and answered. "Agent Mulder... Yeah? Yeah, okay. Hold on." He covered the receiver with his palm and looked apologetically at Audrey. "I'm sorry, I have to take this."

"Of course," she said, already heading for the door. "Please keep me informed on any of your other findings."

"Sure," he replied, waving her away.

As Agent Horne walked back to the elevator, a woman with short red hair in a black two piece suit passed her by. They exchanged polite smiles and Audrey looked back over her shoulder to watch as the woman entered Mulder's office.

Once inside the lift, she pressed the button for her floor and reached into her bag. She brushed the photograph of Agent Cooper with her fingertips, before pulling out her notepad and pen.

  
**7:58pm. March 19th. 1999. Agent Horne's apartment building. Washington, DC.**

  
The heating in one of the hallways of Audrey's building seemed to be broken and she shoved her hands into her coat pockets as she made her way to her apartment. She would have been home much, much earlier - but there was an accident in the city that made the roads an absolute nightmare. Three car pile up, no injuries. You'd think people would slow down rather than speed up during peak hour traffic.

She was considering her dinner options when she turned a corner and happened upon a tall dark haired woman, leaning against the doorway to her apartment. She was dressed in a smart grey suit and held a large paper bag under the crook of her arm.

"Can I help you?" Audrey asked.

The woman looked up and beamed. "Special Agent Horne, what time do you call this?"

"Denise!" Audrey cried in delight. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the area and thought I'd stop by and see how white collar is treating you," Agent Bryson replied, leaning down to kiss her on the cheek. "Those thugs don't deserve you. When are you going to come join me in Denver?"

"Whenever, big shot. I'm all yours." Audrey unlocked the door to her apartment and stepped aside to let Agent Bryson in. She tapped the paper bag with her key as she passed by and smiled. "If that's not dinner, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."

"Guilty as charged," Denise said, while producing various ingredients from the bag and placing them on Audrey's kitchen table. "Go sit down. I know where everything is."

Audrey kicked off her heels and threw her coat and bag onto the sofa. Agent Bryson visited her apartment at least once every two months to have dinner and catch up on eachother's lives. They'd met through Agent Cooper, years ago in Twin Peaks. And, when Bryson heard that Audrey was interested in joining the bureau, she'd taken it upon herself to do whatever she could to help the process. Having connections within the FBI meant so much more than Audrey expected it to, and she was eternally grateful for the help and encouragement.

"What are you working on at the moment?" Denise inquired, while filling a pot with hot water from the tap.

"Nothing interesting," Audrey paused and thought about Agent Mulder. "Actually, I've been working outside of my department a lot recently."

"Skinner, again?"

"Well, yes, I've been working on something for him. But I've also gotten into contact with a senior agent. I've never met him before, but he has kind of a reputation."

"That doesn't sound very promising, Agent Horne." She could hear the frown in Denise's voice, without looking up from the loose thread she was picking at in her stockings.

"Have you ever heard of Fox Mulder?" Audrey asked.

"Fox Mulder?" Denise laughed. "Sounds like a name you'd give a comic book character."

"I heard he was showing an interest in Twin Peaks, so I got into contact with him yesterday."

When there was no reply from the kitchen, Audrey looked over at Agent Bryson. The expression on her face was unreadable, as she tossed some vegetables into a pan and asked, "Has he found any new evidence?"

Audrey pulled the CTV photograph of Agent Cooper out of her bag and brought it over to the kitchen. Denise stared at it for a few moments, before returning to her cooking.

"When were these taken?"

"Not long after he disappeared, in a gas station near the Canadian border," Audrey replied. "I don't know where Agent Mulder got these, but I've never seen them before. And I've seen everything related to Twin Peaks and his disappearance."

"I know you have," Denise said, a fond smile on her face. "But this is the first thing we've seen of Dale in ten years. If he was still out there, if he was still in the country, we would have found something else by now. You're not the only one who's been looking for him."

Audrey sat down at the kitchen table, still holding the photographs. It hadn't even occured to her that Agent Bryson had also been looking for him. They spoke about him a lot when Audrey was training at Quantico. Denise had so many stories about Agent Cooper when he was also a student, training at the same academy. But, as the years passed, he came up less and less in conversation. She thought Denise had lost hope.

"Is Smulder going to pursue this any further?" Denise asked.

"It's Mulder," Audrey laughed. "And, yes, I believe he will."

"You be careful, alright? Collaborating outside of your department can be risky business, especially when the agent you're working with doesn't have the same commitment as you. Didn't you say he has a reputation? What kind of a reputation?"

"They call him 'Spooky Mulder'. He had a poster of a UFO and a photograph of Bigfoot in his office."

Denise laughed so hard, she had to step away from the stove and lean against one of the chairs at the dining table. "Are you sure he's a real person?"

  
**1:15am. March 20th. 1999. Agent Horne's apartment. Washington, DC.**

  
It started to rain, during dinner, and had eventually set in for the night. The sound of the water pitter pattering on Audrey's bedroom window lulled her into a half sleep, somewhere between dreams and reality. Denise was on the couch, watching television. They'd talked for ages, over dinner and glasses of wine, about work and current gossip. The subject of Agent Cooper had not come up again.

Denise's response to her news of Agent Mulder's interest in the case had left her feeling even more doubtful. There had been no sign of Cooper in ten years. The CTV photographs offered them nothing in the way of evidence or leads. Even if he had crossed the border into Canada, there would have been a trail to follow. But there wasn't. He had vanished.

She rolled onto her side and opened her eyes. There was someone in her room. She could see the silhouette against the faint moonlight coming in through the window. She quietly reached for her gun on the bedside table, but it wasn't there. She turned on the lamp and looked back at the shape.

It was a man with blonde hair, wearing a light grey suit. There was a look of utter distress on his face. He was aiming a gun at the wall of Audrey's bedroom.

She slowly sat up in bed and reached out a hand. "Give me the gun."

He glanced over at her, briefly, before looking back at the invisible enemy in her bedroom wall.

"Give me the gun," she repeated, emphasizing each word.

"No. No, I'm waiting for him," He replied, in a distinct Southern accent. "He'll be here, any minute."

Audrey slipped out of bed and stood up. "Who? Who are you waiting for?"

The man started to tremble, all over. She wasn't sure if he had blinked at all since she first laid eyes on him. "I don't know. But he'll be here. Any minute. When he gets here, I have to kill him."

"You don't have to do anything," Audrey said, taking a small step towards the man. "Can you tell me your name?"

The man gulped, loudly. "Phillip. Phillip Jeffries."

"Alright, Phillip," Audrey paused, trying to instill a calming tone in her voice - the one she used whenever she spoke to her brother, Johnny. "Can you tell me what you see?"

Phillip looked up. "Trees... Douglas Firs." He shook his head and stared back at the wall. "He's coming, he'll be here any minute."

Audrey stepped forward. "Phillip."

"THERE," he screamed suddenly and pointed at the wall. "THERE HE IS."

"Phillip-" She started, but was cut off when he started shooting at the wall.

Audrey bolted upright in bed and gasped. She reached over and fumbled with her lamp before finally finding the switch in the dark and turning it on. Phillip Jeffries was gone. But the dream was so real, she could not shake the image of him from her mind.

Her ear was ringing again. Her hearing aid was on the bedside table, where she had left it before falling asleep. She put it back on, got up, and tip toed into the lounge room.

Denise was fast asleep on the sofa. The light of the television danced on her peaceful, sleeping face. Audrey found the remote on the floor and turned it off. She gave the apartment a once over, before heading back to bed to try and salvage the rest of her night's sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> will publish more as soon as I can!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been ten years since Special Agent Dale Cooper vanished from the town of Twin Peaks. No one in Audrey's department of the FBI will acknowledge him, or what happened in that quiet little town in the mountains.
> 
> So, when two agents named Fox Mulder and Dana Scully reopen the case, Audrey can't help but follow their progress. She knows Agent Cooper isn't dead. He's in her dreams, every night - willing her to come and find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how about that season finale, huh? that sure did happen. thanks a lot, david. even kyle can't decide what actually happened - and he was in the scene. I made a playlist of x files/twin peaks music to write to, but i've just made it public so you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEXd1RB3ZWOa-2kjyJ_yZHZB1NVQAXkr5

**10:14am. March 20th. 1999. FBI Headquarters. Washington, DC.**

  
Audrey fiddled with the pen sitting in her lap, turning it over and over in her hands. When the receptionist stole a glance at her, she smoothed her long curly hair back and frowned. She'd been waiting to see Assistant Director Skinner since yesterday morning. He was always out of the office, in a meeting, or otherwise engaged. She was starting to think that he was avoiding seeing her.

The door to his office finally opened and Skinner stepped outside. "Agent Horne. Please, come in."

Audrey followed him into his office, holding the small stack of files to her chest. "Sir, I've come to ask you about the case you gave me. I wanted to know if you could-"

"I'm gonna have to stop you there, Agent Horne," he interrupted. "I appreciate the work you've done and I'm sure what you've found will be very helpful, but the case has been closed."

Audrey frowned. "Closed?"

"An elderly couple called 911 earlier this morning. They'd heard shots fired next door. Marcus Avery was engaged in a deal with two other suspects," Skinner explained. "We're not entirely sure what happened, but it appeared that an argument broke out and Avery was shot. The two suspects are still at large, although we believe they were both wounded at the scene. Avery has been taken in for questioning, but we have enough evidence now to convict him."

"I thought it was him," Audrey sighed. "I'd come to ask if I could go and question him myself."

"I'm glad you didn't. Marcus Avery was a cover. His real identity is Douglas Richard."

Audrey was stunned. "Isn't he the Secretary of Education?"

"He is. You'll hear about all this on the news, I'm sure. I've already been contacted by a few journalists this morning." He paused, walking over to his desk before continuing.

"But, Agent Horne, I don't want you to tell them anything if they find out your involvement in the case. It's already a scandal. If they get their hands on you, I can't protect you."

"Yes, sir," Audrey replied. "Are my supervisors aware of this?"

Skinner nodded. "They are. And if they're unhappy with your involvement in the case, send them to me. This is on me, not you. I got you involved."

"With all due respect, sir, it was my decision to get involved."

"It was and I respect that. You're a good agent, you should be working somewhere more challenging than white collar." Audrey flushed at the compliment, which meant a lot coming from someone like A.D. Skinner. "But I need you to be careful in the coming days. If you haven't already used up your vacation time - I recommend you use it now."

  
**12:58pm. March 20th. 1999. Washington, DC.**

  
For the first time in two weeks, the sun was out, so Audrey had decided to take her lunch and afternoon coffee outside. Her discussion with Assistant Director Skinner had been on her mind all morning. Douglas Richard was all over the news - she'd watched one of the reports on a television in the break room, surrounded by a dozen of her colleagues.  
She couldn't watch the full segment. When all the unlawful schemes and tax evasions of her father came out, it was a huge scandal in Twin Peaks. It was the biggest scoop for the local news station since Laura and Maddie's deaths. Her father had skipped town, leaving her to deal with the press and their endless questions.

What did Benjamin Horne's wayward daughter, the newly minted FBI agent, think of her father's actions? How would the Horne family brand survive after such a blow? Would she quit her job and return to Twin Peaks to clean up her father's mess? Take over the Great Northern and the department store?

They weren't concerned with her father. Once he left town - all their focus turned to the family he'd left in debt, misery, and disarray. Her experience had left a harsh light on a media that she already had little respect for.

Audrey frowned and attempted to read her book. It was a loan from Denise - one of those instant bestsellers that everyone and their mother had on their bookshelves. But she was too distracted and read the same paragraph, over and over again.

Frustrated, she put the book down and took a sip of her coffee. The sun was behind a cloud and it had started to grow cold. She was considering going back inside, when her phone rang. She picked it up and answered, "Agent Horne?"

"Have you heard the news?" It was Agent Mulder. He was calling from a crowded place - she could barely hear him over the indistinct chatter and white noise.

"About Douglas Richard?" Audrey replied, tossing away her rubbish and walking back towards the main entrance. "Yeah, I have."

"No, about a girl named Meredith Chase. She washed up on the shores of Black Lake Dam in Twin Peaks this morning. Some kids found her."

She stopped dead in her tracks. "What?"

"She was naked and wrapped in plastic. No autopsy, yet. Looks like she was there overnight, but wasn't found until about 10am this morning." He paused and spoke to someone on his end of the line, before continuing, "My partner and I are on standby for a flight to Seattle."

Agent Horne found a seat and sat down, trying to gather her thoughts. "How did you get assigned to this case?"

"Pulled some strings. Put in a personal request," he replied. "Actually, I think most agents would rather steer clear of Twin Peaks after what happened to your Agent Cooper."

"He's not _my_ Agent Cooper."

Mulder chuckled. "Alright, sure, whatever you say. But if you're going to come out here and join us, I hope you can leave that teenage crush of yours back in Washington."

  
**9:46pm. March 20th. 1999. Entering the town of Twin Peaks...**

The town had not changed at all. It was preserved in time as much by the people who still lived there as it was by her childhood memories. Leaving Twin Peaks was like swimming up to the surface of the water and taking her first full breath after spending years in the quiet and still depths of the ocean.

She missed it, sometimes. She missed the peace and quiet, she missed the simplicity of the people and the life in Twin Peaks. Her life in the FBI was fast and loud and often lonely. She hadn't made friends at work. There were people she liked, people she got lunch with or went on the odd night out to their favourite clubs, but none of them were friends.

Friends are people you can tell your secrets. People who know when you need someone to talk to, or someone who can just listen while you talk to them for hours about everything and nothing. Audrey felt she was better off alone. In Twin Peaks, you were never alone. It was like the mountains surrounding the town in beautiful shades of green and brown were there to keep people in, or to keep the rest of the world out.

She sighed as she pulled into the parking lot of the Calhoun Memorial Hospital. After putting in a request for some time off work and packing a suitcase at home, she had headed straight for the airport. If anything, at least she would be out of town while the press had their field day over the Douglas Richard scandal. And there was something about being back in Twin Peaks that made her feel at ease. Like she didn't have to pretend anymore.

The doors creaked as Audrey opened them and stepped into the warm glow of the foyer. When she'd called Agent Mulder after arriving in Twin Peaks, he'd told her to come meet him and his partner in the morgue. They were going to take a look at the dead girl who'd drifted down the river, out of the foggy mountains.

She asked for directions at the reception desk and made her way down to the lower levels. She'd spent months at this hospital, recovering from the explosion at the Twin Peaks bank. Andrew Packard, Pete Martell, and the elderly bank president had died at the scene.

Her body was thrown across the room by the blast and she was found, hours later, under a pile of rubble and broken glass. She had a fractured femur, multiple lacerations, bruised ribs, two fractures in her hip, a severe concussion, and massive internal damage to her ears. No one could explain how she had survived. It was a miracle, they told her. It didn't particularly feel like one to her, at the time.

When Agent Horne stepped out of the elevator, there was a sudden drop in temperature. The lowest level of the hospital was below ground and rarely used by staff. Apart from the morgue, it was mostly used as a storage space for equipment and beds. There were filing cabinets shoved up against the wall across from the elevator and curtains to her left, obscuring what looked like various machinery and bedding.

Her heels clicked on the tiled floor as she made her way towards the exam room. The sound must have carried down the empty lower level, as Agent Mulder poked his head out of the sixth doorway in the hall and flashed her a smile. "Agent Horne, glad you could make it."

"Sorry it took me so long, I had to stop for gas," Audrey replied, pausing to observe her colleague. "How was your journey over here?"

He scoffed, shaking his head. "Abysmal. It rained as soon as we hit the lovely state of Washington and hasn't stopped since. I assume you've met Sheriff Hawk?"

Mulder stepped aside and Audrey peered into the dimly lit exam room until her eyes landed on the familiar and commanding presence of the ex-deputy. When Harry Truman retired from the police force seven years ago, he had named Tommy 'Hawk' Hill as his successor. Harry was never the same after Agent Cooper's disappearance.

Hawk came forward and took her hand when she extended it. His hair was starting to turn white and there were new laugh lines in his face, but little else had changed in the years since she had last seen him. "Audrey, it's good to see you."

"You too, Hawk," she replied. "I wish it wasn't under these circumstances."

Agent Mulder motioned towards the exam room and Audrey stepped over the threshold. The girl's body was on a table, in the centre of the room. She was covered from the neck down with a plastic sheet. She couldn't have been a day over sixteen.

Standing next to the table was the red haired woman Audrey had encountered in the hallway at the bureau on Wednesday, after her second meeting with Mulder. She pulled on a pair of gloves, while observing Audrey. "Have we met before?"

"We passed each other in the hallway outside Agent Mulder's office yesterday," She explained. "My name's Audrey Horne."

"This is my partner, Agent Scully," Mulder said, waving a hand at her by way of introduction.

"I've heard a lot about you." Agent Scully glanced at the instruments laid out on a small table beside the girl's body, before looking back over at Audrey. "You were living in Twin Peaks during the original investigation, weren't you?"

Audrey nodded. "I was, but that won't affect my work."

"I wasn't suggesting that," Agent Scully paused, watching her carefully. "What can you tell me about the victims of the original murders?"

"Teresa Banks was the first victim. As far as we know, she wasn't related to anyone in Twin Peaks. No one claimed her body. The second victim was Laura Palmer. She was the homecoming queen, the town's sweetheart - everyone loved her. But she had secrets. She wasn't what everyone thought she was. The third was Laura's cousin, Madeleine Furguson. She was visiting her aunt and uncle after Laura died. She suffered severe trauma to her forehead, it looked like someone had pushed her into a window or mirror.

"All of the victim's bodies were wrapped in plastic and found washed up on the banks of a river the next day. The killer had sexual relations with each victim. Cause of death was loss of blood or blunt trauma to the head. My father, Benjamin Horne, was tried for the murders. But he wasn't convicted. They never convicted anyone. The case was closed, sometime after Laura's father died. But it didn't feel right, at the time," she paused, looking over at Sheriff Hawk. "There was a lot of information about the case that was withheld by the sheriff's department, even after I became an FBI agent."

"Some things are better left unknown," Hawk replied. He was standing in the doorway of the examination room and, with the light behind him, he looked like a spectre.

"There was something else," Audrey continued, looking back over at Agent Scully. "Each victim had a letter placed under the nail of the ring fingers of their left hands. The letters were; T, O, R, and B. One of them was found on Ronette Pulaski, who escaped the scene of Laura's murder."

Scully frowned, gently picking up Meredith's left hand and examining the fingers. There was a small contusion in the delicate skin underneath the nail of the ring finger. Agent Mulder handed his partner a pair of forceps, which she pushed under the fingernail. It took some maneuvering, but she finally pulled something out and examined it under the dull fluorescent light.

"What is it?" Audrey asked, stepping towards the table to get a closer look. It was a small square of paper, covered with spots of dried blood. There was something printed on it, but it was smudged and difficult to see from where she was standing.

"I think it's the letter 'E'."

~~~

When Agent Horne stepped into the Great Northern Hotel for the first time in 6 years, heads turned. The prodigal daughter had returned, with two FBI agents in tow. Although the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department had not released any information about Meredith Chase - it was a small town and news traveled fast.

The foyer was tense and quiet. Everyone seemed to be speaking in hushed voices, crouched over their tables and luggage as they conversed with their friends and partners.

"Nice place," Agent Mulder announced from behind her. "I doubt the bureau can afford it, though."

"Don't worry," Audrey replied, glancing at Mulder over her shoulder. "I can get you a good rate. I know the owner."

"Your father, Benjamin Horne?" Agent Scully inquired, shifting the weight of her suitcase to her left hand.

She shook her head, glancing back over her shoulder at her two colleagues. "No. My mother."

After her father had gone on the run, all his properties and assets had fallen to Audrey. But she didn't want them. And her brother wasn't fit to take over, her uncle was too involved in her father's dealings to be trusted with the family businesses.

So she gave everything to her mother, before leaving Twin Peaks behind her for a promising future in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She thought that her relationship with her mum would improve in the absence of her father, but it hadn't. Her mother was an island.

One of the receptionists - was it Nancy? Or Natalie? Audrey couldn't remember - rushed over to them with a broad smile and a clipboard in her hand. "Miss Horne! Welcome home."

Audrey eyed the girl's badge. "Thank you, Natalie. This is Agent Mulder and Agent Scully. Could you set them up with two rooms?"

"Certainly! If you'll follow me?" Natalie beckoned Mulder and Scully over to the check in desk, leaving Audrey alone at the entrance. She picked up her suitcase and headed towards the hotel cafe, ignoring the glances of staff members and guests.

Although it was well past 10pm, there was still a handful of people seated in the hotel cafe - drinking coffee and conversing with each other. The aroma filled Audrey with a sense of well being and safety. She could almost see Agent Cooper sitting at his regular table, with the sun pouring in through the windows. He spotted her, across the room, and smiled.

She often thought about Agent Cooper's time in Twin Peaks. She was so open with him. It felt like he was the only person in the world that she could trust. But then, no one had ever been so kind to her before. He looked at her and saw a lonely soul.

Sometimes she felt ashamed of how vulnerable she was to him, like she'd never been to anyone before or after. What did he think of her? What would he think of her now?

"Miss Horne?" Natalie had approached her, still clasping her clipboard and beaming all too widely. "Will you be staying in a room as well?"

Audrey paused, considering for a moment, before giving her reply. "Yes, thank you, I will."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you'll notice the change in scene breaks. they won't be broken up with introductions to the time and place each scene is taking place in anymore. there'll be more stylistic changes from the cold, dull grays of washington dc to the warm, familiar tones of twin peaks. hopefully i'll be posting chapters fairly regularly from now on! gotta fill that twin peaks void, even if season three did not.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been ten years since Special Agent Dale Cooper vanished from the town of Twin Peaks. No one in Audrey's department of the FBI will acknowledge him, or what happened in that quiet little town in the mountains.
> 
> So, when two agents named Fox Mulder and Dana Scully reopen the case, Audrey can't help but follow their progress. She knows Agent Cooper isn't dead. He's in her dreams, every night - willing her to come and find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this chapter took so long! It's been a bit of a struggle to find the time to write and then to actually get the words out when I did. But this is a bumper chapter (I think I usually aim for 2,000ish words per chapter, but this one is over 5k) with lots of familiar faces, so I hope you don't mind. Most of the next chapter is already written, so it shouldn't be too long before that one is up as well.

Whenever someone slipped through the red curtains and entered the liminal space that was the Black Lodge, their movements became odd and stunted. Their voices came out slow and strange. It was like the fractured time of the lodge had altered their bodies, their minds.

But when the curtains parted and Audrey Horne stepped through, she wasn't affected. Her movements were lithe and her face was as open and curious as ever.

He couldn't remember the last time he saw her, or how long ago it was. But there was something different about the way she carried herself. And her hair, once cropped short to frame her teenage face, was now much longer and cascaded over her shoulders. When she turned and spotted him from across the room, she froze.

How did she get there? The lodge was occupied by spirits, both good and bad. He had never seen a living person pass through those curtains, not since he had followed Windom Earle and Annie Blackburn through the gateway in Glastonbury Grove. It was a place of broken dreams and lost souls.

Audrey stared at him, her lips parted and her hands trembling at her waist. And then she spoke. "Is this a dream?"

"I don't know," he replied, stepping around the velvet chair and making his way over to her. "Are you asleep, Audrey?"

She shook her head and gave him a look of helplessness. "I can't hear you."

Cooper instinctively reached out and touched her arm in reassurance.

"I'm back home. In Twin Peaks," she said, quietly. "There's been another murder."

"Be careful, Audrey," he insisted.

She seemed to have read his lips and smiled. "I can take care of myself."

He knew, instinctively, that BOB was responsible. He was a violent spirit of the lodge that had terrorized Twin Peaks through the body of Leland Palmer. When he was discovered, he forced Leland to suicide and disappeared back into the deep, dark woods. If he was back, if he had returned to Twin Peaks, all goodness was in jeopardy.

"Audrey, I know you can't hear me, but try to remember when you wake up." He paused and then spoke slowly, enunciating each word carefully in the hopes that she would recognize them. "If you see me, it isn't me. If you see me - run."

Her expression changed and became guarded, almost disappointed. "I haven't seen you in ten years. No one has."

Dale's hand dropped from her side and he turned away. He knew it had been a long time since he had first entered the lodge. But it had passed like hours, rather than months and years. He felt a great sense of loss.

"Why did you leave?"

He looked back at Audrey, but she was already gone.

~~

"Agent Horne?"

Audrey blinked and looked up at Agent Scully. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"Could you pass me that box?" She repeated, pointing to one of the many boxes spread out over the Sheriff's Department conference room table.

Audrey pushed the box across the table, before reaching for the pot of coffee. They were going through the files from Agent Cooper's time in Twin Peaks. She had seen all of them, years ago, but Mulder and Scully wanted to bring themselves up to date on the case.

"Rough night, huh?" Agent Mulder asked, taking the coffee from her when she offered it.

She sighed. "I slept well enough, but I had some... strange dreams this morning."

"'I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space'," he recited, "'were it not that I have bad dreams'."

"Hamlet." Scully replied, without looking up from her work. "What were your dreams about?"

"A room, surrounded by red curtains. Agent Cooper was trapped there."

The door to the conference room opened and Deputy Andy Brennan stepped in, his arms laden with more boxes and - balanced on top those boxes - was a fresh pot of coffee.

"Did he say anything to you?" Mulder asked.

"He tried to speak to me, but I couldn't hear anything," Audrey replied, staring down into her cup and conjuring the memory of his face in her mind. "I think he was trying to tell me that he wasn't himself. That if I saw him, I should run away."

Agent Scully took a sheet of paper out of one of the new boxes and stared at it. "Deputy Brennan, who is this?"

Andy looked at the paper for a moment, before his face lighted with recognition. "Sarah Palmer had a vision of that man in her house after Laura died."

Scully frowned. "This is a wanted poster, Deputy. Are you saying this was made for a man that may or may not exist?"

He shrugged. "Harry thought it might mean something. And Agent Cooper had a dream about the same man. It's a good drawing, don't you think? I did it myself."

Andy exited the room, leaving the three agents to puzzle over the wanted poster. It was a man with long hair and a grizzled beard. Although his expression was still and perfectly harmless, Audrey couldn't help but feel disquieted by it.

As if reading her mind, Agent Mulder said, "I sure as hell wouldn't want to meet him in a darkened alley."

~~

Once the agents had completed their research at the Sheriff's Station, Audrey decided to take them down to the Double R Diner for lunch. Last night's rain had subsided and left the roads and pavements with a reflective sheen.

The day was overcast and there wasn't a single patch of blue sky. But Audrey's mood was lifted by the sight of the diner and she felt warmed in spite of the miserable weather.

When she went to open the door to the diner, someone inside opened it for her. It was a little girl, with long blonde hair and a toothy grin. Audrey smiled back at her.

"Shouldn't you be in school, kiddo?" Mulder asked.

"My mum works here," the girl replied, proudly.

"Becky, honey, I told you to finish your homework."

Audrey looked up and watched as Shelly Briggs rushed out from behind the counter and steered her daughter away from the doorway, back to a table covered with school books.

It was well after lunchtime, so the afternoon rush had already passed through the diner - leaving only a few stragglers and weary travelers behind.

Margaret Lanterman was sitting in her regular booth, cradling her log in her arms while chewing noisily. Norma was topping up the coffee cups of two large truckers wearing baseball caps and plaid shirts, while Ed Hurley watched from the counter.

When Shelly returned from her daughter's table to greet Audrey and the other two agents, her face lit up. "Audrey!"

"Hi, Shelly," she said, smiling. "Can we grab some lunch?"

"Sure, take a seat!"

While Mulder and Scully found a booth by the window, Shelly beckoned Audrey over to the counter.

"I heard you'd come to investigate the murder of that girl," she said, in a low voice. "Who was she?"

Shelly had always been a gossip. "She was just passing through town. We think she ran away from home, but we haven't been able to get into contact with her parents yet."

"Do you think whoever did this killed Laura too?"

Audrey shook her head. "I don't know, but I don't want you to worry about it. That's why we're here."

Norma passed by, touching Audrey's arm and smiling, before she went to the booth where Scully and Mulder were sitting.

"Is that Becky, over there?" Audrey asked, waving a hand at the girl she'd met at the door. "She's grown up so fast."

Shelly beamed. "She's in the fourth grade this year."

"Audrey, can I get you anything?" Norma asked, as she returned to the counter.

"A slice of huckleberry pie would be great, thanks Norma." She replied, watching as Norma walked away before turning back to Shelly. "How's Bobby?"

Her face fell and she looked away. "Not great. He lost his job."

"Oh, Shelly, I'm sorry."

"That's why Becky isn't at school today. I had to come into work and Bobby is out of town this week, but I couldn't find anyone to watch her after school," she said, toying with the dish towel that was tucked into her apron.

Audrey had an idea. "Do you know when Bobby will be back?"

"He should be home tonight. Why?"

"I can see if there's any work going at the Great Northern," she said, leaning against the counter and watching Shelly's reaction. "He's worked there before and I'm sure my mum can find something for him to do."

It was like a weight was visibly lifted off her friend's shoulders. "Oh, Audrey, that would mean so much to us."

"Can you tell him to come by the hotel tomorrow morning?"

"I don't know when he's going to be home," Shelly sighed. "But he's meeting Mike at the Roadhouse tonight at about eight o'clock when he gets back in town. Maybe you can try and find him there?"

"I'll give it a shot."

Audrey went over to the booth by the window and sat down, next to Agent Mulder who was presently devouring a slice of cherry pie.

"You know," he began, wiping his mouth with a napkin before turning towards her. "Twin Peaks has been a hotbed of abductions and unexplained phenomena for centuries."

Audrey glanced over at Agent Scully, who looked back at her over the brim of her coffee cup and said nothing.

"I think Agent Cooper was trying to communicate with you last night. Have you seen him in that room before?"

Audrey raised an eyebrow. "No, I can't say I have."

"I think that's where he is. I think he's been abducted and your return to Twin Peaks has made it easier for him to communicate with you, to try and tell you where he is."

She wasn't sure what to say. She was torn between bemusement and annoyance, which seemed to be reflected in Agent Scully's expression.

"I don't think we should be jumping to conclusions like that just yet," Scully said. "A dream can just be a dream, Mulder. If I dreamt I was a giant bug, that doesn't mean that I'm giant bug."

Mulder shrugged. "You're probably right. Although, I do have a thing or two to say about giant bugs. Would you like to hear them?"

"No," Audrey and Scully replied in unison.

Mulder grinned, before looking over his shoulder and nudging Agent Horne. "That lady over there, with the log?"

Audrey didn't have to turn around and look to know who he was talking about. "We call her log lady. She's been carrying that log around for thirty years."

"Her name wouldn't happen to be Margaret Lanterman, would it?" Agent Scully inquired.

"How do you know that?"

Mulder looked back over his shoulder at the booth in the back of the diner. "Margaret Lanterman disappeared along with two of her classmates in September, 1947. They showed up the next day, unharmed, like nothing happened."

"We only looked at the files from Agent Cooper's time in Twin Peaks, how do you know all of this?"

"Their disappearance is an X-File. There weren't many details recorded about their disappearance, the file is mostly newspaper clippings and photographs put together by my predecessor." He paused, taking a pen out of his jacket and sketching two small mountain like peaks on his napkin. "They each had marks on the backs of their knees, like this. It's common for abductees to have marks when they are returned, but I've never seen anything like this one before."

Audrey frowned. "She was seven years old when she went missing. And she hasn't been the same since her husband's death. I doubt she'll be able to tell you anything about what happened, even if she wanted to."

"Do you know Major Garland Briggs?" Mulder asked.

"Of course, everyone did. He died in a fire ten years ago."

"He was an abductee as well. Before he died, he went missing in the woods and was found not long after. The official report is that he got lost while on a camping trip with your Agent Cooper, is that right?" Audrey nodded. "That wasn't the whole truth. Agent Cooper reported that there was a light, before Major Briggs disappeared. And he returned with marks on his neck. Three triangles."

"How do you know all this? Another X-File?"

He shook his head. "Unofficial channels. I did a lot of research on Twin Peaks before we left Washington."

Audrey sighed. She wondered what it must be like to have real connections at the FBI. To be supported by colleagues who had become trusted friends and advisors. She felt stuck at white collar. Denise's offer to set her up elsewhere was becoming more and more tempting.

"Excuse me." Everyone at the table turned and looked up at Margaret Lanterman, standing at their booth with a stern expression on her face. "Why are you here?"

"Uh," Mulder started, looking to Audrey for guidance. "We're here investigating a murder, ma'am. I'm Agent Mulder, this is my partner Agent Scully. And I'm sure you've met Agent Horne already."

Margaret didn't respond. She was staring at Audrey.

"Her name was Meredith Chase," Audrey said. "Do you know anything about her?"

Margaret shook her head. "She is not why you are here. She was already gone, before she arrived in Twin Peaks. But he is not. He is still waiting."

"Who is?" Scully asked.

Margaret turned, looking somewhere above Scully's shoulder. Her face turned pale. "You were lost, and found, but still lost. There are many paths before you. Twin Peaks is not one of them."

Audrey stood up. "Margaret, who is still waiting?"

She looked at her. Through her, above her, around her. And then she spoke. "He is waiting for you."

~~

Agent Horne stepped out of her car and into the brisk air of the parking lot outside the Roadhouse. There was already a light fog, drifting out of the woods and curling over the roads and parked cars. It wasn't too late in the night, but evenings always seemed to start early in Twin Peaks. It made it all the more tempting to crawl into bed at reasonable hours, like the rest of the sleepy town.

But her goal was to find Bobby, ask him to come to the hotel tomorrow, and then leave. When she opened the door to the bar, the air was thick with smoke and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the low light.

It was much warmer than it was outside. Probably a result of the many bodies, moving through the bar and swaying blearily to the hypnotic music coming from the stage. It didn't matter. She was warm enough to take her coat and gloves off, breathing a sigh of relief.

The woman onstage was familiar. She'd heard her perform before, at that same bar, but she remembered her voice like it was from a dream rather than a memory. It drifted across the bar, filling every inch of the space. " _Floating through this darkness, all alone..._ "

Audrey scanned the Roadhouse for a sign of Bobby, but she couldn't see him. She checked her watch. It was ten to eight, perhaps he just hadn't arrived yet.

"Audrey Horne, is that you?"

She looked up and found Mike Nelson, from her year at Twin Peaks High School, standing in front of her. He hadn't changed. Even his clothes seemed similar to the unkempt shirts and jeans he wore ten years ago.

" _Love is gone in darkness, cold as a stone..._ "

"Hey Mike," she replied, distractedly looking over his shoulder. "How are you?"

"I'm doing alright. Actually, I'm doing pretty great."

He went on to speak about his work, his aspirations, his string of girlfriends. Audrey could tell that the goal was to impress her, but she wasn't buying it.

" _Searching through the shadows you have known. Love's gone... Bare as a bone._ "

When he was finished, she spoke up. "Shelly told me you were meeting Bobby for drinks tonight? I've been trying to get a hold of him, I want to talk to him."

He seemed surprised. "Yeah, I'm meeting him tonight. What do you want to see him for?"

Unsure how much Mike knew about Bobby's situation, she pondered her answer for a moment before speaking. "There's a position available at the hotel. I wanted to know if he was interested."

"What if I was interested?" Mike insisted, rudely.

Audrey squinted at him. "You just told me that you have a job."

"I did. I mean, I do..." He swallowed. "But I might be interested in working someplace else."

" _Try to hold the memory face, you seem to have vanished without a trace._ "

"I'll keep you in mind when our next round of interviews starts," Audrey replied. She was trying to think of a way to leave him and wait elsewhere, on her own, in the bar. "If you'll excuse me."

"Why don't we wait together, huh? We can keep each other company."

She stared at him, considering. Perhaps she could question him about Meredith. He said that he found a job at a supermarket, he might have seen her there. "Alright. Let's find a table."

They had to wait for a couple to leave before they could be seated. The Roadhouse had always been a popular haunt for the youth of Twin Peaks.

" _And in this darkness, this empty space, I float alone._ "

It took her a moment to remember that she and Mike didn't count as youths anymore. Sometimes it felt as if she was still a little girl, helpless among a sea of adults.

"I'm gonna get a beer, do you want anything?" Mike asked.

Audrey shook her head. Although, as he walked away, she thought perhaps she might like a glass of water. She'd never noticed how smoky it could get in the Roadhouse until now. Her eyes and mouth felt unbearably dry.

" _Now the night is falling, you have gone... Sad dreams blow through dark trees, love's gone wrong._ "

The woman onstage was pale as a ghost. She stood out, among the band members and against a backdrop of red curtains. An involuntary shiver went up Audrey's spine as she recalled the red room of her dreams from the night before. She tried to dismiss the thought from her mind and let the music wash over her, closing her eyes and giving over her senses.

" _Clouds of sadness raining all night, love's... love's gone, the end of our song._ "

She opened her eyes and looked back at the stage. But the woman was gone. Standing there, alone in the spotlight, was Agent Cooper. Although every instinct told her to get up and run to him, she was unable to move.

As in the dream - his lips moved, but she could not hear his voice. He was trying to tell her something. The Roadhouse was completely still. It was only her and Agent Cooper, gazing across the room. It was no great distance between them - Audrey could close it within a few strides - but in that moment, it felt like an endless chasm. It was hopeless.

" _I float alone..._ "

Suddenly, the singer was back onstage, and the casual chatter of patrons filled the silence she had felt only moments before. It was like nothing had happened. The strange moment of connection with a ghost, and her waking dream, was over. Her eyes were wet with tears, which she furiously blinked away before Mike returned to the table.

" _I float alone..._ "

"You sure you don't want anything?" He asked again. "How about a glass of wine?"

"I said no thank you."

Mike sighed, cracking open his beer and drinking directly from the bottle. "I'm being perfectly polite to you, Audrey, I don't understand why you're behaving like this."

A thought occurred to her and she looked him straight in the eye. "Mike, do you know why I left Twin Peaks?"

"Wasn't there some nasty business with your father?" He sniffed. "Bad business dealings, or whatever. But I heard there was more to it than that. Some stuff involving Laura, too."

Audrey stood up, still staring down at Mike. "And do you know what I've been doing since I left Twin Peaks?"

He shrugged. "No. Why should I?"

She smiled and, adjusting the placement of her jacket so that her gun and badge were visible, watched Mike's reaction with barely suppressed glee. "I'll see you later, stud."

She was going to wait for Bobby outside in the parking lot but, luckily enough, she ran into him on her way out. He did a double take when he saw her and gave her the biggest grin, which instantly reminded her of his daughter Becky.

"Audrey Horne," he said, still beaming. "As I live and breathe."

She laughed. "Bobby goddamn Briggs."

"Why am I a goddamn Briggs this time, huh?" He questioned, giving his best attempt at looking genuinely offended. "What did I do, Agent Horne?"

"I spoke to Shelly this afternoon," she said, watching as his expression changed. "She told me you've been having trouble finding work."

"Yeah. Well, it's not exactly a huge town," he explained, shrugging his shoulders. "People employ their friends, their family. I'm neither of those."

"But you're my friend and I'm going to get you a job." Before he could protest, she continued, "Stop by the Great Northern tomorrow morning and ask for me at the reception desk. I'll arrange everything else."

He shook his head. "I don't have any hospitality experience."

Audrey raised an eyebrow. "What was all that time you spent working for my father, then? Horse shit?"

"He was crazy, most of that time- ow!" Audrey had slapped him across the arm. "Alright. I'll drop by tomorrow. But I'm not wearing a costume again."

Audrey laughed, in spite of herself, at the memory he brought up. "It's a deal."

"Thanks, Audrey," he said, touching her arm. "I mean it."

"Catch you later, Briggs."

~~

Instead of driving straight back to the Great Northern, Audrey decided to take the long way home - through the quiet and misty neighbourhoods of Twin Peaks.

She was restless. Margaret's words at the diner and Agent Cooper's sudden appearance at the Roadhouse were both still on her mind. She hoped that a short drive through the dimly lit streets, lined with familiar trees and beautiful two story houses, would put her mind at ease and help lull her into a dreamless sleep when she returned to the hotel.

There'd always been a sort of mysticism about Margaret Lanterman. She predicted events in town, before they happened. Her gaze pierced the hearts of the residents of Twin Peaks and, as a result, most people avoided her. Audrey hardly ever encountered her. She was so rarely ever in town, especially after the explosion at the bank, that she never had reason to run into her.

But she did remember seeing Margaret, once, at the hospital. She'd come to visit Audrey after she awoke from her coma. Her visitors, her parents, and the doctors all wrote notes to her on a small notepad sitting on her bedside table. "No one else survived explosion. You're lucky to be alive.", "Hearing may return, but we can't be certain. I'm sorry, Miss Horne.", "Agent Cooper left town. We can't reach him at this time.", "Where does it hurt?", "Can I get you anything?", "I love you, sweetheart. I'm so sorry."

But Margaret just stood, watching her with an expression of deep sadness and regret, without saying a word. Audrey reached out her hand. Margaret accepted it and squeezed, tightly, and then started to cry.

That was the last time she saw her before she left Twin Peaks for Washington. She was never able to ask why Margaret had visited her. But, in all honestly, she didn't care. The act of kindness meant a great deal to her in a time when she felt utterly alone.

As she drove through another quiet street, that looked just the same as the last, the sight of movement outside one of the houses caught her eye and she turned her head to look through the windshield. There was a man, climbing out of a second floor window. The house was familiar. It was the Hayward house.

She stopped the car without bothering to pull over and climbed out, pulling her gun out of its holster and running towards the house. "Hey!"

The man stopped, looking down at her. And Audrey froze. It was the man from the poster at the Sheriff's Station. All filthy denim and long, unwashed grey hair - he made a sound that rattled through Audrey's entire being. He was like an animal, clambering down the wall without looking at what he was doing. His eyes were fixed on Audrey.

Trying to compose herself, she aimed her gun at him as he landed on the ground by the gate. "Put your hands where I can see them."

His hands twisted at his sides. His jaw rotated and clicked as he stared back at her. There was something so unnerving about his gaze that made each hair on the back of Audrey's neck stand on end. She'd been out in the field before. She had handled it well and with complete composure. But this was different. It was like she was staring pure evil in the face.

The man tilted his head and made a small step towards her. "STAND BACK, OR I WILL SHOOT."

He laughed. But the sound was stunted and unnatural. Then he stopped and spoke, in a voice that sent a shock through her soul, "Audrey..."

She gasped. The voice was so familiar, it haunted her dreams and spoke to her at her most desperate hours. It was the voice of Agent Cooper.

A light came on inside the house and the front door opened. She could hear Doctor Hayward calling out, but she couldn't see him from where she stood at the side of the house.

The man, clearly disturbed by this, turned and ran to the back of the house. Agent Horne gave chase, cursing herself for leaving her torch in the glove compartment of her car. It was a full moon that night, but the light of it was muted by the intense fog and clouds. In spite of this, she could see well enough in the backyard of the house to observe as the man ran into the woods.

Although she immediately went after him, she knew already that it was hopeless. Robert Frost said that the woods were lovely, dark and deep. She wasn't so certain about the lovely part, but they were dark and endless in Twin Peaks. Many of the houses had backyards that were open ended and spilled out into the woods. After Laura's murder, a lot of fences were built up to keep the darkness of those woods separate from the idyllic American living of the families of Twin Peaks.

Laura was killed in the woods, away from the comfort and safety of her home - which was much like Donna Hayward's home. Often it felt that the crime was not committed in the woods. It happened in homes like this and in the streets of Twin Peaks where everyone saw Laura's suffering and ignored it. Bobby said at her funeral that everyone was to blame for her death. After looking in the face of the grey haired man and seeing such darkness, such emptiness, in those deep black eyes - she believed Bobby's words more now than ever before.

Audrey had been running through the woods all this while, without a sign of the man. When she stopped and turned, she could still see the light of the Hayward house in the distance. Defeated and terribly frightened, she started back to the house.

She could hear the beat of wings above her head. Looking up, she watched as an owl landed in one of the tall trees. Its eyes glowed, like two small beacons in the night. She shivered, although she wasn't cold. The run through the woods and the adrenaline pumping through her veins had left her flushed and sweaty under her warm layers of clothing.

"Who's there?" Doctor Hayward called from the house. She could tell from his voice that he was afraid and called back as soon as she came closer to the backyard.

"It's alright, Doctor Hayward, it's just me. It's Audrey."

She found him, standing on the back porch in his pajamas, with a rifle in his hand. He lowered it when he saw her and visibly sighed with relief. "Thank god. Are you alright? We heard yelling."

"I'm fine," she replied, holstering her gun and stepping up onto the porch. She motioned to the rifle and clucked her tongue. "I never thought I'd see you with one of those."

He gave her a bewildered look, before glancing down at the rifle and shaking his head with a small smile on his face. "It's not loaded. It was my grandfather's, it's purely decorative."

Audrey nodded. "I'm glad to hear it."

"What were you doing in our backyard?" He asked, motioning for her to step inside. "Was that you yelling?"

"It was me," she replied, stepping into the warm glow of the kitchen and breathing a sigh of relief. Donna's mother was in the next room, wringing her hands as she watched this exchange. Audrey gave her a polite smile. "I hope I didn't wake you."

Eileen shook her head, brushing off Audrey's apology. "Are you okay, dear?"

"I'm fine. But I need to ask you some questions, if that's alright?"

Doctor Hayward nodded, pulling up a chair at the kitchen bench so that Audrey could sit down. She was anxious to tell them what she had seen. And yet, she struggled to get the words out. The man had clearly been leaving one of the girl's bedrooms. It wasn't Donna's room. She had left town not long after she graduated high school.

Audrey exhaled, before finally speaking, "Can you tell me which room is upstairs, closest to the road?"

Doctor Hayward's brow furrowed. "That's Gersten's room. Why do you ask?"

She nodded. The man was leaving Gersten's bedroom when she saw him from the road. What he was doing there was something she couldn't bare to think about, let alone discuss with the girl's parents. "I saw a man leaving her bedroom window. I tried to chase him down, but he disappeared in the woods."

Eileen gasped. Doctor Hayward closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"Do you mind if I speak to Gersten?"

~~

When Audrey stepped into Gersten's room, she was already awake and sitting up in bed. The window was still open and she stared, listlessly out into the cold starless night.

"Gersten? It's Audrey Horne, do you mind if I come in?" No answer was given, so she made her way into the room and closed the window before looking back at Doctor Hayward, who was standing in the doorway and watching his daughter with deep concern.

Audrey sat down on the edge of the bed, watching as Gersten fiddled with her blankets and avoided her gaze. There were no signs of a struggle on her. She seemed oddly calm.

"Did he hurt you?" She asked, gently.

Gersten finally met her gaze and shook her head.

"Has he visited you before?"

"I thought..." she started, looking back out the window before returning her gaze to Audrey. "I didn't know he was real."

"What do you mean?"

Gersten ran her hands up and down her arms, slowly, rhythmically. Her red hair was wild about her face and her eyes were filled with the haze that comes between sleep and wakefulness. "I thought it was a bad dream. I thought he was just a bad dream."

"Did he tell you his name?"

She nodded. "His name was BOB."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so amsandsams on tumblr drew this about a month ago and I'm still not over it: http://amsandams.tumblr.com/post/165464296089/been-reading-questions-in-a-world-of-blue-on-ao3 
> 
> It's gorgeous, it captures the mood I was going for so well?? it's my phone lock screen, I'm a total loser and will never be over this. Go check out their tumblr for more art and quality content!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been ten years since Special Agent Dale Cooper vanished from the town of Twin Peaks. No one in Audrey's department of the FBI will acknowledge him, or what happened in that quiet little town in the mountains.
> 
> So, when two agents named Fox Mulder and Dana Scully reopen the case, Audrey can't help but follow their progress. She knows Agent Cooper isn't dead. He's in her dreams, every night - willing her to come and find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have any excuses for how long this chapter took. Late 2017 until around the end of May this year was a very busy period for me, but I really want to get back into the swing of writing this fic. It's something that's on my mind a lot and I know I won't feel any sense of closure until I get it all out there.

The next morning, Audrey woke to find Twin Peaks still shrouded in the fog from the night before. It would drift back into the woods, once the sun came up, but for now she could barely see ten feet outside of her bedroom window.

After calling Sheriff Hawk to the Hayward residence and explaining what she saw, he had sent her back to the Great Northern just after midnight. They decided to keep a watch on the house, every night, until the grey haired man was apprehended.

It was so difficult to fall asleep after her encounter. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw that face. She could almost feel his presence, as he crawled over the foot of her bed and into her subconscious. She slept with the lamp on and her gun on the pillow next to her.

After showering, she slowly made her way downstairs to the hotel lobby. She found a table by the window and ordered a cup of coffee. Agent Mulder and Scully probably weren't awake yet, but she didn't mind waiting. She had a lot to think about before she could even attempt to explain everything that had happened the night before.

She wanted to talk to Harry Truman, the previous sheriff of Twin Peaks. He worked closely with Agent Cooper during the Laura Palmer case. He had to know something.

"Hey!" Audrey looked up and smiled as Agent Mulder and Scully approached her table. "Good morning. How'd you sleep?"

She sighed. "Not well. I was at the Hayward house."

"Hayward? What were you doing there?" Scully asked, waving a waitress over to their table and ordering two black coffees.

"I was driving back to the hotel when I saw a man leaving one of the upstairs windows of the house. I gave chase through the woods, but I lost him. It turned out he was visiting Gersten Hayward, the youngest of their three daughters, and it wasn't the first time she'd seen him."

One of the waitresses came over and poured two cups of coffee for the agents. Mulder waited until she was gone before he spoke. "Did you ID the man?"

Audrey nodded. "Do you remember that wanted poster we found yesterday? It was him."

"The man from Sarah Palmer's vision?" Scully asked. "From Agent Cooper's dream?"

"I know how it sounds, but it was him. I'd recognize that face anywhere."

"It's not implausable. Maybe Cooper and Laura's mother saw this man in Twin Peaks and their subconscious remembered him," Mulder suggested, wrapping his hands around his cup of coffee for warmth. "Dreams are merely a distorted version of our reality."

"It's been ten years since that poster was made and he hasn't changed, at all." She bit her lip, conjuring her memories from the night before. "It was so strange. There was something unnatural about him, about the way he moved and spoke. When I tried to follow him, he completely disappeared."

"Did you question Gersten Hayward?"

Audrey nodded. "I did. She said his name was BOB. She seemed to believe that he wasn't real, that she had been dreaming, but I have reason to believe that he has been visiting her on and off for at least two weeks."

"Agent Horne?"

Audrey looked up to find Bobby Briggs standing next to their table in a suit, with a sheepish expression on his face.

"Oh, shit, Bobby, I completely forgot," Audrey said, flustered as she stood up. "Will you excuse me?"

"I hope I'm not interrupting something," Bobby began, looking over his shoulder as they left the dining area of the Great Northern.

"No, it's fine," Audrey replied, already rehearsing the speech for her mother - who still hadn't replied to her note from yesterday afternoon about seeing Bobby for a position at the hotel.

"What were you saying about Gersten Hayward?"

They stopped outside the main office and Audrey sighed. "Don't ask."

"Agency business, huh?" He asked, watching as Audrey smoothed over his jacket and fixed his tie. "'Most Likely to Become a Cop'. I never thought that would be you."

"I'm pretty sure it was 'Most Likely to Leave Town', idiot." She paused, taking in his appearance before giving her nod of approval. "Are you ready?"

"About as ready as I'll ever be."

~~

When Audrey returned to the dining area, Agent Mulder and Scully had already left. But there was a message left for her at the reception desk telling her to drive about halfway down Highway J, where Sheriff Hawk was waiting to take her to an abandoned logging cabin deep in the Ghostwood National forest. Some of Meredith's possessions had been found there by one of the teams who scouted the woods she had been hiking before her death.

As she drove through town and down the highway - the fog was still slowly lifting off the ground to reveal frosted grass and damp roads that glistened under the beam of her headlights. It was such a beautiful sight. She wondered if anyone else who skipped town as soon as humanly possible felt the way she did, whenever she came home. There was a quiet about Twin Peaks and a freshness in the air that was unique to anywhere else she had ever been.

Getting back to work in Washington DC could never come soon enough whenever she made the trip up north to visit her brother but, as soon as she arrived, it was like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. There was a calm about the town that extended to its people.

When Laura died, everyone was stunned. How could something like that happen in a place like this? But it wasn't the right question to be asking. Laura was different. Laura never fit into the narrative of the town. She wanted something outside of the confines of this place and the story it had already written for her.

So Twin Peaks chewed her up and spat her back out.

~~

"Sheriff," Audrey said, stepping out of her parked car and walking over to meet Hawk who was waiting for her in a clearing by the side of the road. "I hope you haven't been waiting long."

"No. I haven't." A man of many words. "Agent Scully and Mulder are already at the cabin. It's about a fifteen minute walk due east. I hope you brought your hiking shoes."

Audrey jokingly saluted him, before they started walking into the woods and away from the road. 

Although it hadn't snowed overnight, the terrain was still wet from the constant rainfall the town had seen all week. There wasn't a track leading off from the road, but Hawk made his way through the forest with such confidence that all Audrey could do was try and keep up.

"Mrs Hayward wants to take Gersten out of town for a few days," Hawk said, breaking the silence.

"That's understandable. They were all pretty shaken up last night," Audrey replied. "Maybe she can go visit Donna in New York?"

"Have you been in touch with Donna?"

"Yeah, we call each other all the time. She's doing a lot better these days." Not a lot of people in town knew what happened between Will Hayward and Audrey's father. But Donna confided in her, before she left for college. She wanted to be surprised or even shocked at her father's actions - but she wasn't. Mostly she was grateful that Donna had told her at all.

“That’s the cabin, up ahead.”

Audrey looked up and watched as the small log cabin became visible through the dense foliage. It was in a state of disrepair, unlike the pristine and well loved cabins found throughout Twin Peaks. The wood in the exterior was rotting and the roof seemed inches away from caving in. The area was crawling with officers from the sheriff’s station, who were alien in the untouched depths of the Ghostwood forest.

“Agent Horne, up here!” Mulder called down to her from the cabin.

“Found anything?” She asked, making her way up the slight incline to join her colleague.

“Looks like someone has been living there for a while, but it’s pretty clean otherwise. No fingerprints. No food, either.” He replied, leading her into the cabin where Agent Scully was examining a windowsill.

It was much cleaner inside. There was a fireplace in the corner with a fully stocked basket of wood and sparse furniture, including chairs and tables and a modest bed, filling the rest of the space. There were no decorations or nick knacks, except for a framed painting above the dining table.

"The killer left the money and valuables in Meredith's bag," Scully said, standing up and taking her gloves off. "Her wallet wasn't secured in her backpack, it was sitting on top of her clothes with at least two hundred dollars in petty cash inside along with her credit card."

"I don't think he was interested in money. If he was, I doubt he'd be living like this," Mulder replied.

But Audrey wasn't paying attention. The painting had caught her eye and she had been staring at it while the others were still combing the room for evidence. It was a faded image of three young children, gathered around a table, while an older girl with angel wings served food to them. There wasn't anything odd about it. But it was like something out of a picture book and felt wildly out of place in the eery old logging cabin they were gathered in.

"Can you pass me some gloves?" She asked.

Agent Scully gave her the gloves she had been wearing and watched in silence as Audrey took the painting down. It was in a gold frame with a plain cardboard backing. She had the feeling that there was something concealed within the frame, but when she looked back up at the wall where the painting was hanging - there was a small round crevice with three small, yellowing pages at the base.

Audrey felt a chill go up her spine as she put the painting down on the table and carefully extracted the pages. She recognized them and the delicate, curved handwriting almost instantly.

She could feel Agent Scully's presence at her shoulder, before she spoke. "What are they?"

"I think they're pages from Laura Palmer's secret diary," She replied, turning to face her colleagues. "It was found in pieces at Harold Smith's residence, but there were still pages missing that had been torn out before she gave the diary to him. ' _They've never listened to my cries and I never wanted them to anyway_.'" She read from the first page. " _But there is this - This came to me in a dream last night... "My name is Annie. I've been with Dale and Laura. The good Dale is in the lodge and he can't leave. Write it in your diary." That's what she said to me_.'"

Agent Mulder took the page when she offered it and frowned. "This Annie she mentioned could be Norma Hurley's younger sister. She died in hospital before Agent Cooper disappeared," Audrey said, disturbed by what she had read. "But Laura never met her. And she never met Agent Cooper either. But who was she dreaming about?"

"I don't know. What else did she write?"

"This one is from Halloween. She talks about this girl, Nancy, from our high school, and about wearing a mask. There's not much else." She put the page aside and turned to the next one. "' _The moon has been high in the sky for hours now and I can't sleep. It's 1:30am. I'm crying so hard I can hardly breathe. Now I know it isn't BOB. I know who it is_ '..."

There was a silence as Laura's words sunk in. A slight wind had picked up through the morning and was starting to rattle the windows of the small cabin, but still no one spoke.

Mulder was the one to finally speak up, "It wasn't BOB who killed her?"

Agent Scully sighed, shaking her head. "I've read the rest of her diary. It's confusing and a lot of what she wrote contradicts what she said just two pages earlier. But it seemed like she knew, for years, who her abuser was. She said it was BOB, but it wasn't him. It was someone else. Someone she knew very well."

Mulder nodded. "Victims of sexual violence often pretend to be someone else or with someone else to try and cope with the truth of their reality. She said in her diary that she met BOB in her dreams when she was a child. Gersten thought he was a dream, too."

"Then who did I see at the Hayward house last night? I'm not dealing with trauma or sexual abuse. My mind has no reason to disguise the identity of this man, not like Laura or Gersten," Audrey replied, frustrated with this new theory. "I'm sure he was real."

"I don't doubt you, Agent Horne. You all saw the same man that Laura did. Scully, do you remember Gary Lambert?" She raised an eyebrow, but still nodded an affirmative. "The mind is a powerful thing."

There was a light knock at the door and they all turned to see Sheriff Hawk standing outside. "Agent Horne, a word?"

Audrey followed him outside and was about to mention Laura's diary pages, but Hawk spoke first.

"I just got off the phone to Harry. He wants to speak with you."

"Oh." Audrey was surprised. She hadn't spoken to Harry since the incident at the bank, but she had a lot of questions for him. "Is he at the station?"

"No, he's asked that you come visit him at his house."

"That's almost two hours away!" She exclaimed. "We've just uncovered some evidence inside the cabin, I need to be here right now."

Hawk shrugged. "I'm sorry, Audrey, I don't know what to tell you. He did say it was urgent."

~~

By the time Audrey arrived at Harry Truman's house, the weather had turned foul. There were dark clouds looming overhead as she made her way through the mountains and down to the small town Harry had relocated to years before. His retirement and departure from the town was quiet and unexpected. There were rumours, of course, but Audrey always felt it had more to do with Cooper's sudden disappearance than anything else.

His house was on the outskirts of the town, at the end of a long driveway lined with trees. It was a small cottage, much like any other in the area, but there was nothing particularly warm or familiar about the place. She had to knock twice before Harry finally answered the door. He had grown a short, disheveled beard. And his eyes were different. More stern. And tired.

He lead her into the house, wordlessly, and she watched as Harry sat down but declined to sit when he motioned to a chair opposite his. The wind buffeted the side of the small house, disturbing the peace of the retired Sheriff's cozy living room. Audrey looked at her wristwatch. 3:36pm. It would be getting dark soon, and Mulder and Scully would soon decide to complete the day's work without her.

But before she could say anything, Harry looked her in the eye and said, "I called you here because I wanted to ask that you cease your investigation."

Audrey blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"I know why you're here. You're looking for Agent Cooper."

She stiffened at his name. "I'm here to investigate the murder of Meredith Chase."

"That's why you came, but not why you stayed," he paused and tilted his head in her direction. "You're not going to find him, Audrey."

"Why not?" She demanded. "You haven't done anything since he disappeared. You didn't even try to look for him."

Harry flinched and looked away. "You have no idea, Agent Horne."

"Really? I have no idea? Well maybe if you told me what happened ten years ago, then I would. Maybe if someone was honest to me for one fucking second, I would be able to do my damn job."

Harry closed his eyes. "That's enough."

"I looked through the records from 1989. There wasn't even a report on Agent Cooper's disappearance," Audrey paused, letting what she had said sink in. "He was gone and the next day you were saving cats from trees or whatever the hell it is you do around here."

He stood up, without looking at her, and started walking back to the front of the house. But Audrey wasn't finished yet.

"Maybe if you'd done something instead of sticking your heads in the sand all those years ago, then he'd still be here."

Her words finally got through to Harry, who reeled on Audrey and almost snarled, "You have no idea what we did. You have no idea how many hours we spent combing this town and those woods for any sign of Agent Cooper. And do you know what we found? Nothing. He's dead, Audrey."

"How do you know that without any evidence."

Harry laughed. It was a hollow sound. "Cooper died when he came back from that place. What came back, it wasn't him. I can only hope that it starved to death in the woods."

The wind hit the west wall of the house so hard that the foundations shook. Agent Horne wasn't sure if that was the sound of thunder in the distance, or her heart beating in her ear. She had waited years to hear about the day Agent Cooper disappeared. Now that Harry Truman had finally yielded, she was lost for words.

Harry turned and watched her, warily. "You want to know what happened to Cooper. You really want to know."

"Yes," Audrey replied, breathlessly.

"Alright, sit down. I'll make some coffee. We're going to be here for a while."

~~

As Audrey drove away from Harry Truman's house, she looked back in the rear view mirror. He was standing on the porch. He didn't wave or go back inside out of the storm, he just stood and watched as her car went back to the main road.

Her mind went over and over what he had told her. None of it made sense. All of it was straight out of an episode of the Twilight Zone. But, somehow, she believed it. There was always something about the town that was different. She never noticed it much until she left and saw what life was and what it could be like outside of that sleepy town.

When Laura died, it was like something in the town had changed. Everyone's darkest secrets were laid bare and the nights were suddenly filled with a distant sense of fear that made the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. Laura died and left a town in pieces.

She didn't want to think about Agent Cooper. Harry told her everything. He told her how he went looking for Annie Blackburn and never returned. At least, the man she knew never returned. She was an FBI agent. She knew how disappearance cases like this worked. It had been ten years. When someone has been gone that long, they never come back.

There were only two possible outcomes, after the missing person had been gone for such a long time. Either the body would be found one day, perhaps by a civilian out on their morning walk. Or, more likely, the body would never be found and their family would live out their lives with the hope that one day their loved one would come home.

But, if what Harry had said was true, Special Agent Dale Cooper was never coming home.

Audrey's face was wet with tears. She didn't wipe them away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter six is basically done, I just need to edit it, so keep an eye out for that within the new few days. Subscribe, maybe, if you'd like to be updated on when chapters come out. I also post a link whenever a new one is up over on my blog http://reginalds.tumblr.com/. Thank you for reading this little fic of mine, and thank you so much for your patience!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been ten years since Special Agent Dale Cooper vanished from the town of Twin Peaks. No one in Audrey's department of the FBI will acknowledge him, or what happened in that quiet little town in the mountains.
> 
> So, when two agents named Fox Mulder and Dana Scully reopen the case, Audrey can't help but follow their progress. She knows Agent Cooper isn't dead. He's in her dreams, every night - willing her to come and find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really excited about this chapter, I hope you like it!! Audrey's meeting with Harry was sort of a catalyst for the story and propels her forward in her investigation. Lots of neat stuff to come.

"Agent Horne!" Mulder called her over to his table by the window, the next morning. Audrey had drove aimlessly around town in the rain for hours, before finally going back to the Great Northern after 1am. She had barely slept and dragged her feet over to the table, watching listlessly as her colleague pushed a cup of coffee towards her. "Here, you look like you need it."

"Thanks," she replied.

Mulder continued eating his breakfast in silence. Today, they planned on canvassing the residents of Twin Peaks while Scully looked at the body one last time before the girl was sent back to her parents. They’d found the owner of the log cabin, a retired estate agent who lived just outside of town, and Audrey was going to question him. Although none of them would admit it, they were running out of leads. The log cabin should have been a revelation, but it was another dead end. Audrey, who was on leave from work, could stay in town for a while longer. But Agents Mulder and Scully would have to leave soon if they didn't come up with any suspects for the murder.

Her talk with Harry the night before had revealed so much to her about Laura Palmer and Madeleine Ferguson's killer. She already suspected that Meredith was a victim of the same killer and so did Harry. But that did not get them any closer to apprehending him. The killer wasn't human. It was an evil entity, a kind of spirit, that took the form of anyone it pleased. It lived in Leland Palmer for many years, raping and abusing Laura ever since she was twelve years old.

But, with Leland long dead and Agent Cooper AWOL for ten years, BOB could be anyone. This knowledge terrified Agent Horne. Her career had been built on solid facts and numbers. When someone was guilty - they were guilty. End of story. But how do you arrest someone who isn’t responsible for what they’ve done? Leland had lived with BOB for most of his life. His agency was taken from him at a very young age and it was never given back, not even after he had raped and murdered his own daughter.

Mulder finished the rest of his coffee in one go and looked at Audrey. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," she replied.

~~

"Agent Horne, it's Assistant Director Walter Skinner."

Audrey's back straightened automatically at the sound of his voice. She was driving to the estate agent’s home when the phone rang. She'd picked it up, expecting Scully or Mulder, but it was A.D. Skinner who had answered.

"I'm sorry to bother you on your vacation, is this a bad time?"

"Oh, no, that's fine," she said, looking for a place to pull over. "How can I help you, sir?"

Skinner sighed. "This isn't about you or your work. You're not in any trouble. I just want to clear that up now before I say anything else."

"Okay?"

"Good. Now, be honest with me, Agent Horne," he said, severely. "Are you working with Agent Mulder and Scully on the Twin Peaks case?"

Audrey swallowed, thinking fast. "Sir, I'm on vacation."

"In Twin Peaks?" He asked. She could hear someone speaking to him, but the call was long distance and slightly muffled so she could not make out what they were saying.

Skinner had access to her bank records. If he wanted to, he only had to look and he'd see the flight she took from Washington to Spokane, and then the car she hired to get herself to Twin Peaks. She couldn't lie. "Yes, I'm in Twin Peaks."

"Mmm," he paused. "Have you been working with Mulder and Scully?"

"I've seen them, I haven't been working with them." She replied. It was a lie, but perhaps she could get away with it. "What is this about?"

He ignored her question. "Good. I don't want you working with them on this particular case."

"Why not?" Audrey asked, turning her indicator on as she pulled into a side street. The voice on Skinner’s end of the line grew louder, although it was still too muffled for her to make out what was being said.

"It's... a difficult case. It involves an FBI agent that went missing around the time of Laura Palmer's death - you may have met him?" Audrey made a confirming noise. "Mulder and Scully are just there to investigate a girl's murder. I want them back as soon as they've exhausted all their leads and suspects."

"What happens if they need backup from me or if there's questions they have that I can answer?" She asked. "You said this had nothing to do with me or my work. And I'm not in any trouble."

"If that happens, I trust you to use your discretion. But I don't want you to get involved at all, if possible." He paused, listening to the still indistinct voice in his office, before continuing, "Do I make myself clear?"

Audrey was about to reply in the affirmative, but a woman had stepped out onto the road and she was forced to hit the breaks suddenly. "Holy shit!"

"What is it? Agent Horne?" Skinner questioned her, urgently. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she replied, staring at the woman who didn't even flinch when her car had come within inches of hitting her. "There was a deer on the road."

"Oh."

"I have to go, sir, but I'll take everything you've said on board. Thank you, have a nice day." Without giving him time to reply, Audrey hung up and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat. She opened her door and stepped out, watching as the woman started walking towards town. "Hey?"

The woman didn't acknowledge Audrey and kept walking. She was in a terrible state. Clothed in nothing but a night gown, her hair was unwashed and she was scratched and bruised all over. Her feet were bleeding, probably from walking barefoot in the woods.

Agent Horne stepped cautiously over to her and, taking off her coat, she gently placed it over the woman's shoulders. She froze when the fabric touched her skin, but said nothing. Audrey steered her back to her car and carefully bundled her into the back seat. She sat up straight and arranged her hands delicately on her lap.

It was probably shock that made her so quiet and serene. If Audrey spoke to her or tried to bring her out of it, she'd instantly remember whatever had happened to her. It was better this way, she thought to herself, and said nothing as she drove the woman to the hospital.

~~

Audrey checked the woman into the hospital and made a call to Mulder. She'd tell him in person that Skinner had called her when he arrived with Agent Scully, who wasn’t in the morgue when she arrived. Perhaps one of them could shed some light on the Assistant Director's strange request that she stay out of the case.

The doctor she spoke with told her the woman's wounds were mostly superficial. He suspected that she had been raped, at least once, by a man twice her size. The woman was so thin and delicate, Audrey was sure that most men would be twice her size.

She was allowed in to see her once her wounds had been dressed and a sedative had been administered. She wasn't in any pain, the nurse said, but the doctor felt it was in her best interests to allow her some time to sleep peacefully and unencumbered by what had happened to her.

"I need you to call someone for me," Audrey told the nurse, not taking her eyes off the woman in the bed.

"Yes, of course."

"I need you to call Sheriff Hawk." She paused, and looked up. "Tell him Agent Horne found Josie Packard."

~~

"Are you sure it's her?" Mulder asked, eyeing the sleeping form in the hospital bed. "I read the report on her death. Josie Packard died of unknown causes in the Great Northern after shooting Thomas Eckhardt. And her husband died, not long after, in the explosion at the bank."

"Her husband who we all thought was dead," Audrey replied. "No one seems to die in this town. At least, not forever."

Agent Mulder shook his head. "Do you think she's a victim of the same man who killed Meredith?"

"Yes."

"Was he keeping her somewhere, in those woods? For ten years?" He asked.

Audrey ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "I don't know. It's like she stepped through a portal in time. One moment she was at the Great Northern, and the next she was stepping out in front of my car."

"I wouldn't be surprised."

“Did Agent Scully arrive with you?” She asked, watching as Mulder circled Josie’s bed to stand on the opposite side. “I’d be interested to hear her opinion on all of this.”

“Yeah, she’s speaking to Doctor Hayward down in the lobby.”

Almost on cue, Scully walked into the hospital room and surveyed Josie’s sleeping form for a moment before speaking. “She’s in an induced coma. We’re waiting on some blood tests but she seems in good health, all things considered. Wherever she’s been, she was fed and looked after.”

“I’ve called Harry, he should be here soon.” Audrey looked up at Sheriff Hawk, who had followed Agent Scully, and frowned. She’d heard rumours that Josie was seeing Harry, but she thought that’s all they were. Rumours. “He was in town already, visiting Andy and Lucy.”

“Mulder, can I see you outside?”

As the two agents left the room, Audrey could feel Hawk’s eyes on her back. She wondered how much he knew about what had happened, all those years ago, with Laura and her father. He had been there. He worked with Harry and Agent Cooper. But such was the web of lies surrounding what had happened that Audrey was still struggling to put the pieces together after her encounter in Harry’s cabin the day before. She wanted to trust the sheriff, but she wasn’t certain that she could.

“Harry told you.” Hawk spoke up and Audrey finally looked over at him. “Didn’t he?”

“He told me everything. He told me about BOB and Leland. He told me what they did to Laura. He told me Agent Cooper went into the woods looking for Annie Blackburn and someone else came out – someone that looked like him, but wasn’t him.”

“It was Windom Earle that took Annie to the Black Lodge. Cooper followed him and faced many trials to get her back, but he failed,” he replied, his tone even and steady. “You cannot show fear or vulnerability in the Black Lodge. It sees your soul. It tears you up inside and reflects the darkest parts of yourself. I believe that what came out of the woods that night with Annie was Cooper’s darkest self, possessed by BOB.”

Audrey had so many questions, none of which Harry had been willing to answer. But Hawk seemed a willing teacher, so she began, “What is the Black Lodge?”

“There’s always been a presence in these woods. Harry called it a darkness, an evil that we had to keep at bay, but it goes deeper than that. There is a place called the White Lodge. It is the place souls go after they have departed this life. But to find the White Lodge, you must first pass through the Black Lodge. There you will confront something my people call the Dweller on the Threshold. Your darkest self. This is the presence Harry and all those who came before him have felt. Major Briggs was part of an investigation into the White Lodge, but as far as I know they were unsuccessful in harnessing its secrets. The White and Black Lodges are one and the same, but one is accessed with love and purity while the other is accessed with one thing – fear.”

Audrey crossed her arms and stared down at Josie Packard’s sleeping face. It was a lot to take in. But, somehow, it made sense to her. It spoke to a part of her that had always been there. The part of her that turned and reached out to the woods every time a breeze caught her all alone, at the base of those endless trees. The part of her that first saw Agent Cooper from across the room at the Great Northern and felt a kindred spirit. She couldn’t deny this piece of her heart, any more than she could deny what Harry and Sheriff Hawk had told her.

“The Black Lodge is where BOB came from?” She asked, and Hawk nodded. “Do you think it’s where Josie was being kept, all these years?”

He shrugged. “As far as I know, Josie died in the Great Northern, but her spirit was never put to rest. I don’t think she ever made it to the White Lodge – or out of the Great Northern, for that matter.”

Before Audrey could respond, Harry walked in and stopped just beyond the threshold of the doorway as he caught sight of Josie’s sleeping form. He took a shuddering breath and swallowed, hard. “Where did you find her?”

“She stepped out onto the road in front of my car about a quarter of the way down Sparkwood. We’re combing the woods in that area as we speak, but it’s a lot of ground to cover,” Audrey replied, reaching out to touch Harry’s arm but, remembering his anger from the night before, she stopped herself. “She’s in an induced coma.”

Harry nodded and took a seat by the bed, without taking his eyes off of Josie. Agents Scully and Mulder had returned and wordlessly stood at the foot of the bed, watching the ex-sheriff as he took Josie’s hand and held it in his own.

“Mr. Truman, I understand you were present when Ms. Packard passed away?” Scully asked, delicately.

Harry sighed. “Yes, I was.”

“I also understand that there was never an autopsy performed, although she died under strange circumstances. Is that correct?” He nodded. “Do you know how she died?”

“You’d be better off asking Doctor Hayward that question. I’m not a medical professional. I don’t know why she just... she just stopped breathing. He said her heart suddenly stopped. But she didn’t have any prior heart conditions,” He replied, slowly and carefully, although his voice still faltered. “Cooper said that maybe she just didn’t want to live anymore.”

“I know this must be difficult for you, Mr. Truman.”

He looked up at her and forced a smile. “No one calls me Mr. Truman. It’s Harry.”

“Harry.” Scully paused, her eyes wandering to Josie’s hand. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to examine her fingernails.”

His brow puckered with uncertainty but he shrugged and stood up nonetheless. And, as Agent Scully moved towards the bed, Harry left the room while Audrey followed in silence. He leaned up against the wall and rubbed his hand over his eyes. He looked like he’d gotten about as much sleep as she had. When he saw that she had followed him out into the hall, he gave her a bashful look and then spoke, “I wanted to apologise for the way I behaved yesterday. I was callous and rude. I know you just want to find Coop.”

“Oh,” Audrey started, surprised at his apology. “It’s okay. I guess we’re both angry.”

He smiled that fake smile again. “Yeah.”

“Are you staying with Andy and Lucy?”

Harry sniffed. “No, I just drove up to visit them for the day. Why do you ask?”

“I can set you up with a room at the Great Northern.” Audrey shrugged. “I’m guessing you’ll be up here for a few days, while Josie recovers.”

“You don’t have to do that, Audrey-”

“Yes I do,” she intoned, cutting him off. “Besides. That wasn’t a request.”

Harry chuckled, crossing his arms and pushing himself off the wall with the back of his foot. “You drive a hard bargain, I’ll admit. Those beds you’ve got up there sure are comfortable.”

“Best in Washington State.”

Agent Scully stepped out into the hallway with Mulder and Sheriff Hawk in tow, all wearing expressions of concern. Harry tensed up, eyeing the small plastic bag she was carrying.

“What did you find?” Audrey asked.

Scully watched Harry’s expression as she held the bag up to the light. Inside was a small, square piece of paper with a smudged and almost indistinct letter printed on it. It was the letter R.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to pick up at work again as we approach the end of the year, so I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. But it should be online within the next few weeks! Don't forget to check out my tag on tumblr for more content http://reginalds.tumblr.com/tagged/questions-in-a-world-of-blue I've recently made two gif sets that are in my queue and will be up sometime today. Thank you so much for reading my fic!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been ten years since Special Agent Dale Cooper vanished from the town of Twin Peaks. No one in Audrey's department of the FBI will acknowledge him, or what happened in that quiet little town in the mountains.
> 
> So, when two agents named Fox Mulder and Dana Scully reopen the case, Audrey can't help but follow their progress. She knows Agent Cooper isn't dead. He's in her dreams, every night - willing her to come and find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IS IT FUTURE? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHl_8WK8w3Y
> 
> warning, this chapter contains violent and disorientating scenes.

As Audrey waited for Natalie to complete the paperwork for Harry’s room at the Great Northern, she looked outside and watched the rain falling down the windows in sheets as guests ran across the parking lot to and from their cars. With a parting promise to meet Agent Scully and Mulder back at the Sheriff’s Station later on, she had made her way straight to the hotel from the hospital. Harry didn’t seem likely to leave Josie’s bedside any time soon, but she wanted a room ready for him as soon as he did.   
  
She felt guilty for the way she spoke to him the day before. It was clear that he’d done everything he could, all those years ago. She shouldn’t have doubted his devotion to Agent Cooper. But trust never came easy to Audrey Horne. Denise always said that she acted like the whole world was out to get her. And maybe it was.  
  
“Miss Horne?” She looked up to find Natalie holding a phone out to her. “It’s Sheriff Hawk.”  
  
When Hawk answered, she could tell he was on the road from the far off sound of his voice and the distinct noise of his truck speeding down the rain soaked highways. “Audrey, did you get a chance to speak to that estate agent yesterday?”  
  
“Shit, no, I completely forgot,” she replied, rubbing her temple in frustration. “I can go see him now.”  
  
“No, I’m on the way to Harry’s house to pick up some of his things. I’ll drop by on the way back.”  
  
“Oh.” Audrey paused, watching as Natalie slid the key to Harry’s room across the desk before returning to her work. “Did you want to grab his key from the hotel? I’ve just booked his room.”  
  
“No, I’ve already left town. Just give them to Harry and I’ll see you at the station.”  
  
They exchanged quick farewells and Audrey took the keys from the desk, sighing as she twisted them around her fingers. It had been a long day and she was functioning on less than four hours sleep. She felt drawn to Harry’s room, somehow. So, rather than step back outside into the pouring rain, she made her way upstairs to room 223.  
  
It was just the same as any other room in the hotel. Homely wooden decor, a television set, bathroom, and a queen size bed with fresh blue linen sheets. She found a small notepad on the dresser and left a note for Harry: “Room service is on me. Don’t even think about trying to pay me back. Rest up, cowboy.”  
  
When she opened the curtains, the rain had let up a little. She would have to leave soon if she wanted to talk to Scully and Mulder before nightfall. There wasn’t really a chance to speak to them at the hospital about what Harry and the sheriff had told her. At least, not without them present. And she wanted to explain it to them herself. Maybe laying it all out for her colleagues would make it a little more real.    
  
It still made a strange sort of sense to her. “A darkness in these old woods,” Harry had said. But that darkness had spilled over – out of the Ghostwood forest and into the living rooms of all those pristine white houses. The reality of Laura’s death was still sinking in. She felt responsible, somehow. She went to school with Laura every day. They had a sleepover, once, before they had started to grow apart. Why didn’t she see it then? Why didn’t anyone do anything?   
  
The cover up of Leland’s culpability in his daughter’s death bothered her. She’d thought about him all day. Harry had told her that Leland had no part in what happened, it was all down to BOB and his terrible influence. But how did he know that? Whispers of Leland’s guilt and remorse at the time of his death felt all too late for Audrey to take into account.    
  
Maybe she was thinking too much. Her own relationship with her parents made it difficult to swallow the vision of pure happiness presented by her school friends and their home lives. Twin Peaks was a thin layer of bright smiles and cherry pies, covering up something much deeper and darker. Laura’s death was just a hint of what lied beneath the false niceties and checkered floors.   
  
As Audrey made her way back downstairs, she pocketed the keys and checked the time. 4:39pm. She had just over an hour of daylight left. There was still time to meet her colleagues, go see Harry at the hospital, and be back at the hotel in time to grab a quick dinner and some well needed shut eye.  
  
When she rounded the corner, there were already two guests waiting for the elevator. She ran to catch it, but stopped in her tracks when the guests recoiled and screamed as the lift arrived on the third floor.   
  
Snapping straight into action, Audrey motioned for them to get behind her as she produced her weapon and slowly inched towards the elevator. The doors were whooshing open and closed, but she’d never known the lifts in the hotel to malfunction like that. The screams had drawn a small crowd of guests, but Audrey still didn’t know what was inside the elevator.  
  
She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she stepped in front of the doors and aimed her pistol, only to find a familiar face.   
  
“Phillip?”  
  
He was wearing the same clothes as he was in her dream the week before. Trembling all over and staring out into the hallway at the guests with a wild and disorientated look on his face, he didn’t take any notice of Audrey or lower his weapon at the sight of her’s.  
  
“Phillip, do you remember me?” She asked, trying to draw his attention away from the guests. “You were in my apartment last week.”  
  
His face twitched, but he didn’t move or struggle as Audrey slowly stepped into the elevator and took the gun from him. She reassured the terrified guests that everything was under control, before taking Phillip downstairs and bundling him into her car. She questioned him, repeatedly, but he only gave her blank and confused stares - as if she were speaking another language.  
  
But she had so many questions. What was he doing in the hotel? How did he get there? And, more importantly, how in god’s name did she dream up a real person?  
  
They were a few minutes away from the Sheriff’s Station when he finally spoke. “Where are we?”  
  
Audrey looked over at him, frowning. “We’re in Twin Peaks. What’s the last thing you remember?”  
  
“I don’t know,” he replied, shaking his head. “I don’t… know.”  
  
“What can you remember? Any dates? You know your name, that’s a start.”  
  
He was trembling again. Audrey slowed the car down, ready to pull over if she needed to. “It was February. 1989. I was in an elevator, I walked down a hall, and he was there.”  
  
“Who was there?”  
  
“That man. He doesn’t have a face.” He started running his hands up and down his thighs, the linen fabric crinkling under his touch. Audrey turned into Reinig Road. The station was just around the corner. “They know him. They all know him, but I can’t see his face.”  
  
“Who doesn’t have a face? Is this the man you told me about in my apartment?”  
  
He nodded. “I have to stop him.”  
  
“You told me that last week,” Audrey replied, pulling into the station parking lot. She couldn’t make heads or tails with any of what Jeffries was saying. “Why do you have to stop him?”  
  
Phillip looked at her, staring with an intensity that reminded Audrey of her encounter with Margaret Lanterman at the diner days before. And then he whispered, his voice filled with desperation and heartbreak, “if I stop him, then they’ll let me go.”

~~

“What did you say his name was again? Jeffries?” Mulder asked, holding his hand over the receiver of his phone.  
  
“Phillip Jeffries,” Audrey confirmed.   
  
Once inside the station, she had taken Jeffries into the conference room where Agent Mulder and Scully were waiting. There was a small spread of coffee and donuts on the table, along with some files and scattered photographs of the logging cabin and Meredith’s body. Jeffries took no notice of any of it as he sat down at the table and allowed Agent Scully to examine him.  
  
Mulder left the room, talking over the phone to one of his informants back in Washington.  
  
“Sir, have you been experiencing any dizziness or headaches? Loss of vision?” Scully questioned Jeffries, who shook his head. “Have you taken a fall recently?”  
  
“No, ma’am,” he replied.  
  
“You’re bleeding.”  
  
Audrey watched as Phillip touched his lower lip and stared at the blood on his fingertips when he pulled his hand away. Scully offered him a napkin and stood up, making her way over to Audrey.  
  
“He seems highly disorientated. I can’t find any signs of trauma, but I wouldn’t rule out a concussion. You said you found him in an elevator at the hotel, but you originally met him back in Washington?”  
  
“I didn’t know he was really there,” she replied, shaking her head. “I thought I was dreaming.”  
  
“Maybe you were, Agent Horne.” Mulder had returned to the conference room, with his hand over the receiver of his phone again. “Phillip Jeffries has been missing since 1986. He was an FBI Agent working under Gordon Cole, when he disappeared from a hotel in Buenos Aires.”  
  
“Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole? Agent Cooper’s supervisor?”  
  
Mulder nodded. “The one and only.”  
  
“When did Cooper start working under Chief Cole?” Scully asked Audrey.  
  
“They would have met in 1978 when Windom Earle went missing. Cole oversaw that case and the disappearance and subsequent murder of Caroline Earle,” she paused, leaning against the table and crossing her arms. “But I don’t know that he ever met Agent Jeffries.”  
  
Mulder excused himself, still talking loudly over the phone to someone named Frohicky about faxing some files over from Washington, and Audrey silently went over all she knew about Agent Cooper’s time at the FBI. But what could it mean, if they knew each other? Was he the man without a face that Jeffries spoke about? And what if he was?  
  
“Shit,” Agent Scully swore.  
  
Phillip’s nose was bleeding. But it wouldn’t stop, even after he tipped his head back and tried to stem the flow with a napkin. Scully went out in the hall to get some tissues from the rest room while Audrey knelt down by the chair and put a hand on his arm. The overhead lights were flickering as Jeffries tilted his head forward. The bleeding had stopped, but his crisp grey suit and patterned shirt were covered in red. And he had started trembling again.   
  
When his shaking turned into convulsions, Audrey called for Agent Scully. But then her hands had started trembling too and the words were caught in her throat. There was this sound, in her ear. She couldn’t tell if it was her hearing aid malfunctioning, or if it was from the flickering overhead lights, or maybe something else entirely. It was a sort of crackling sound, undercut by a noise that she couldn’t describe. It howled through her very being. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and, when she touched Jeffries, she felt a shock go up her arm and into her chest. Then the world fell apart around her.

~~

Audrey had screwed her eyes shut, wrapping her arms around Agent Jeffries and holding on for dear life as she felt her body being torn apart from the inside out. All the while, that horrible sound continued - growing louder and louder, reaching a crescendo, and then stopping almost as suddenly as it started.  
  
She could hear Phillip sobbing. Slowly, she sat up and opened her eyes. But they weren’t in the conference room anymore. They were at the top of a staircase, with a wooden handrail and black framework. The carpet was itchy under her bare hands as Audrey crawled over to Phillip and sat next to him, taking in their surroundings. Downstairs she could see plants and paintings and antique furniture. There wasn’t a soul in sight, but somehow she knew they were in a hotel. There was something too refined and simulated about the air for it to be anything else. It felt like home.   
  
The lights were flickering again. Or perhaps she was about to pass out, Audrey couldn’t tell. She felt up-heaved and unwell. Out of place and out of time. She held Phillip’s hand, grounding herself, and then looked up. But they weren’t on the staircase anymore, they weren’t even in the building. The carpet was replaced with cold, hard tiles and all around them were red curtains. Phillip was lying on the floor, his eyes closed. She checked his pulse and, satisfied that he was merely unconscious, she pushed herself up onto her feet.  
  
Audrey hadn't been dreaming lately. Exhausted from work, she went back to the hotel and collapsed for a few hours before starting over again the next day. But she missed the dreams. She missed seeing Agent Cooper.  
  
As she made her way down the hallway, a chill went up her spine. There was something different about her surroundings. She could hear the click of her heels on the tiles. When she brushed the curtains with her fingertips, she felt the soft material.   
  
Agent Cooper was sitting in one of those black armchairs when she came to the room at the end of the hallway. He smiled when he saw her and stood up, putting his cup of coffee down on the table.  
  
"I don't know how I got here," Audrey said. "I'm not asleep. I'm at the Sheriff's station."  
  
Cooper frowned, closing the gap between them as he stepped forward. "What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
She gasped. "I heard you! I can hear you!"  
  
"Audrey, that's wonderful!" He replied, beaming widely. “I have so much to tell you.”  
  
“Harry told me everything,” Audrey said, quietly. “About Leland and Laura. About this place. About you and BOB and the night you disappeared.”  
  
Agent Cooper’s face fell.   
  
“Do you know Phillip Jeffries?” Audrey asked.  
  
His brow puckered in confusion. “Jeffries was a Special Agent who disappeared while on an investigation in 1986. Why do you ask?”  
  
“So you never met him?”  
  
“No, I-” he started, but then his expression changed. “Wait. No, I have met him. He appeared one morning at the Philadelphia office after Teresa Banks was killed.”  
  
Audrey nodded. “Okay. Tell me everything about that morning.”  
  
"I had a dream about someone visiting the office, someone that I couldn't quite visualise. I thought it might mean something and it did. But Jeffries wasn’t seen downstairs in the lobby. He just appeared in the third floor elevator, walked down the hall, and spoke to us in the office,” Cooper explained. “He was disorientated and in pain. He said that he’d found something - but wouldn’t tell us what it was. He disappeared again not long after from that same office.”  
  
“Did he say anything to you?”  
  
“Yes, as a matter of fact, he did. He said ‘who do you think that is there’. We’d never met before, of course. But he was highly disturbed. I didn’t know what to think.” He paused, watching her for a moment. “What is this about, Audrey?”  
  
She sighed. “Just a hunch, I hope."  
  
"What are you doing at the Sheriff's station? Is everything alright?"  
  
Audrey smiled, in spite of herself. She felt warmed by his words and in his presence. It was the safest she had felt in days. "I'm fine. But we brought in Agent Jeffries. He had what looked like a seizure and then we were both transported here. He's passed out in the hallway."  
  
Cooper looked down at her hands, shaking his head. His face had darkened. "Audrey, you shouldn't be here. It isn't safe."  
  
"I'm fine," she reiterated.   
  
"I don't know how to get you out of here. I've tried to leave, believe me, but it's just not possible."  
  
Audrey stepped forward, trying to get him to look her in the eyes. "I can leave. I know it, I can feel it. But once I get out of here I'm going to find you."  
  
"Audrey, you don't-"  
  
She cut him off, "I know you found the entrance in Glastonbury Grove, but it's gone. Harry told me he went looking for it and it just wasn't there anymore."  
  
Cooper shook his head. "Audrey, you have to understand, it's better this way. I don't want anyone else to go looking for the Black Lodge. Not Windom Earle, not Harry, and certainly not you."  
  
"Agent Cooper, you don't have to be the hero all the time," she said, impatiently. "I'm not a kid anymore. And I'm not about to spend another ten years waiting for you to come home."  
  
Although she tried to cover it up, her voice had broke, and Agent Cooper reached out to comfort her. But she pulled away.  
  
"Audrey," he began, quietly. His gaze was filled with such grief, she couldn't stand it. "I don't know what to do."  
  
She had an idea. "I'll go to the forest. I'll wait for you. Just keep talking, and I'll listen. I'll stay there all night if I have to."  
  
Cooper nodded and opened his mouth to respond, but stopped and looked over her shoulder. Phillip had gotten up and stumbled into the room. Wild eyed, all covered in patches of blood - he looked like a wounded animal. And he was staring at Agent Cooper.   
  
"That's him," he murmured, a trembling hand motioning towards them. "He's right there, he's right behind you."  
  
Before Audrey could step between the two of them, she heard it again. That sound. The crackling of electricity and that awful howling noise that ripped through her soul. Her vision was blurred, she was on the verge of blacking out, but still she turned and grabbed onto Agent Cooper - hoping, praying that somehow she could bring him back with them. And then there was darkness.

~~

When Audrey came to, she knew immediately that Cooper had not followed them. It was Phillip that she was clinging to, unconscious at the top of those awful stairs again. Although she felt horribly ill and disoriented, she managed to drag herself up to her feet and slowly make her way downstairs - leaning heavily on the handrail for support.   
  
She walked into the next room, and then the next, until she came upon what appeared to be the lobby. It was filled with more plants and paintings, and a large antique harp with a small velvet stool next to it. Across the room was a large wooden counter with a short, balding man standing behind it. He stared at her with curiousity and spoke in what she could only assume was Spanish, but she was too at a loss to try and discern the language.  
  
She leaned against the counter top, relishing in the cool surface, and tried to find the date in the guest book. Her vision was still blurred and the words were indecipherable but there, in bold print in the right hand corner, was the year. 1986.   
  
She looked up at the concierge and, in the calmest voice she could manage, asked, "Is there a Phillip Jeffries staying here?"  
  
He frowned, but nodded. "Sí, sí. Mister Jeffries check in today. Eleven o'clock."  
  
"Could I leave a note for him?"  
  
The concierge slipped a small piece of paper and a pen across the counter to her and watched as she scribbled a quick note. She could already feel an inexplicable pull, dragging her back to the staircase and the unconscious agent. There wasn't much time.  
  
She folded the piece of paper and let it fall on the counter, not staying to see where it landed, and hurried back where she came. Jeffries was exactly where she left him. His skin was almost the same colour as the walls and she reached over to touch his wrist, searching for a pulse. Before she could find it - the world went dark again.

~~

Audrey woke on the floor of the conference room at the Sheriff’s station and breathed a sigh of relief. The noises had stopped. She had a pounding headache and her mouth felt incredibly dry but, as far as she could tell, she was fine.   
  
Phillip was passed out, but still breathing. Audrey took her jacket off and pillowed it under his head, while trying to comprehend their experience. Phillip Jeffries’ reality seemed to have been split across time and place, ever since his disappearance in Buenos Aires. And, by touching him, she had unwittingly become a part of that. It was a stretch of her imagination. Everything that had occurred in the past 48 hours was. But what other explanation could there be for what had just happened to them both?  
  
“Agent Horne!” She looked up and watched as Agent Scully came into the room and knelt down at her side. “Where have you been? You’ve been gone for almost an hour.”  
  
She started checking Audrey’s vitals and prodding through her hair for any signs of trauma. “I’m alright, I’m not hurt. Is he okay? He keeps falling unconscious.” She asked, shaking her off and motioning to the prone body on the floor beside them.  
  
Scully gave her a look, but moved over to Phillip’s sleeping form and checked him over. “No physical injuries as far as I can tell. I’d say that he has a preexisting condition, but I won’t know more until we can get him to a hospital.”  
  
"We need to lock him up,” Audrey said.  
  
"What?" 

"I was with Agent Cooper. I spoke to him." Audrey looked up as Agent Mulder stepped into the conference room. She questioned him, "That man Phillip keeps talking about? The man without a face?"  
  
Mulder nodded his recognition.  
  
“He was talking about Agent Cooper. When they saw each other, Phillip recognised him. We have to leave him here.”  
  
“Leave him?” He asked as he sat down. “Where are we going?”  
  
She hadn’t noticed Agent Scully standing up and grabbing her a cup of water, until she felt her hands gently guiding her up and over to the table. "Come sit over here. Drink this."  
  
"We have to go to the forest."  
  
"You're not going anywhere," Scully asserted, sternly.  
  
"No, you don't understand. Agent Cooper is going to reach out to me." Audrey paused and took in her colleagues confused faces. “I know how it sounds. But you have to trust me.”  
  
“And you have to trust us,” Agent Scully said. “We’ll go to the forest, but first we need an explanation.”  
  
She felt Mulder’s hand on her back. "We're listening."  
  
Audrey exhaled, looking down into the plastic cup of water. There were tiny ripples in the surface of the water from the vibration of her hands, which still weren’t entirely steady after her ordeal. She had intended on telling them everything. But now that she had finally had the chance, it felt impossible to express - especially in light of what had just happened. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted movement in the doorway of the conference room. It was Sheriff Hawk, watching in silence. Encouraged by his presence - she told Agent Mulder and Scully everything she knew.  
  
"I don’t know if it will work, but I've got to try,” Audrey said, after she had divulged everything to her blessedly willing colleagues.   
  
Scully looked over at Mulder, who nodded, and then she spoke, "Alright. But let's just sit here for a moment, okay?"  
  
She nodded, relieved. But there was more. "There’s something else. You won’t believe me."  
  
Mulder raised an eyebrow. "Try us."  
  
"We were in the hotel that Jeffries disappeared from, in Buenos Aires. It was 1986."   
  
"Was he there?" Hawk asked.  
  
She shook her head. "No. And the Jeffries I was with was passed out. But I left him a note, I don’t know if he'll get it. I couldn’t go into too much detail. I wanted to try and save him. Maybe if he leaves Argentina when he gets my note, he might have never disappeared in the first place.”  
  
“It was worth a shot,” Mulder replied as he pulled Jeffries to his feet with the help of Sheriff Hawk. “He’s still here, though. Maybe he didn’t get your note.”  
  
“I’m surprised you’re so ready to believe that I time travelled to 1986.”  
  
“It’s not beyond the realm of extreme possibility,” he explained, shifting the weight of the unconscious agent as they moved down the hallway. “I can’t speak for Agent Scully back there but, in my personal experience, I have-”  
  
“Don’t start, Agent Mulder,” Scully called from behind them.   
  
He winked at her and Audrey grinned.

~~

After calling Doctor Hayward down to the station to visit Phillip Jeffries in his cell, Audrey had bundled into a car with Agent Mulder while Agent Scully followed with the Sheriff in his truck.  
  
As they drove down the highway towards the Ghostwood Forest, Audrey opened her window just enough to let a cool breeze through the car. She still felt like she was miles away, at that hotel in 1986 or back in the red room of her dreams, so the crisp Twin Peaks air coming off the mountains was so refreshing and grounding.  
  
There was a single road that snaked through the forest, with very few deviations. Mulder would drive down this road until they reached the end of it or, hopefully, until Audrey told him to stop. But she had no idea where they were going.   
  
“Tell me about Agent Cooper,” Mulder asked, suddenly.  
  
“Oh.” Audrey blinked, taken off guard. “What do you want to know?”  
  
“What is he like? How did you meet him?"  
  
"He was staying at the Great Northern while investigating the murder of Laura Palmer, so I met him there. He was... kind and patient with me at a time in my life when I didn't really have anyone I could trust. And he saved my life."  
  
"Was he the reason you joined the FBI?"  
  
"I guess he was," Audrey replied, smiling. And then she looked over at Agent Mulder. "Why did you join the FBI?"  
  
"My sister," he said, clenching his jaw. "She disappeared when I was twelve."  
  
"I'm sorry. What's her name?"  
  
"Samantha."  
  
Audrey nodded. She wanted to ask if his sister had ever been found, but instead sat in silence and looked out at the trees. They had left after sunset and drove into the gathering darkness, until it was pitch black and the headlights of their cars were the only thing between them and the black depths of those woods.  
  
She didn't know what she was looking for, until it found her. They'd been driving for twenty minutes when suddenly she reached over and grabbed Mulder's arm.  
  
He slowed down and pulled over, looking between her and the forest. "Here? Is this it?"  
  
"I don't know," she whispered, trying to listen. "I think so."  
  
"How can you tell?"  
  
It was like back at the station when she disappeared with Jeffries, except this time it was softer - like someone whispering in her ear. "I can hear something. I think it's him."  
  
Mulder nodded, an encouraged smile gradually appearing on his face. "Good enough for me. Let's go."  
  
They grabbed a torch each from the Sheriff's truck and set off into the forest. Audrey almost wished they could wait until morning. A Twin Peaks native, she still felt vulnerable amongst those towering trees. Somehow, though, they were much less menacing during the day. She felt reminded of that night at the Hayward house and those deep, black eyes of Laura's killer. He could be there - watching, waiting. He could pick them off, one by one, and then disappear back into the night as he had when she tried to chase him down.  
  
But she took comfort in the weapon at her side and the three people exploring those woods with her. The voice in her ear was growing louder. But she wasn't afraid of it.  
  
As they got deeper into the forest, she realised what the voice was saying. It was Agent Cooper, reciting the Federal Bureau of Investigation's oath of honour. She looked back at the others, to see if they could hear it too. But their expressions confirmed to her that they couldn't.   
  
She smiled to herself, listening to him talk.  
  
"Does anyone smell that?" Mulder asked, from behind her.  
  
"It smells like engine oil," Scully responded.  
  
"We must be getting close." Hawk said. How he knew that from a smell alone, Audrey wouldn't ask.  
  
Their torchlight bounced off something, just up ahead. It was a small black pool and the source of that strange smell. It was encircled by what appeared to be white sand. Audrey looked around. They were in a clearing, surrounded by small trees. They were all dead.  
  
"I want to get a sample of this," Scully said. She and Mulder were leaning over the black pool and giving each other knowing looks.  
  
"Have you seen this before?" Hawk asked.  
  
"If it's what I think it is, then yeah," Mulder said, watching as his partner collected a sample. "You might say we have a history with this substance."  
  
Audrey froze. Agent Cooper's voice in her ear had stopped. She looked around the forest, her torchlight bouncing off the trees in a frenzy.   
  
"Agent Horne?" Mulder intoned from behind her, his voice laced with concern.  
  
A twig cracked in the distance and they all turned in its direction. They weren't alone. There was a man standing just beyond the clearing, with his back turned to them. He was wearing jeans and a brown jacket.  
  
Agent Scully stood up, her hand poised over her gun. "Turn around, with your hands where I can see them."  
  
The man raised his hands over his head and turned, slowly. It was him. It was Agent Cooper. His eyes darted from Hawk, to Scully, to Mulder, and then finally landed on her. Audrey's face broke out in a dazzling smile. She bit her lip to stop herself from crying.   
  
He didn't respond. He just stared at her, from a distance, and lowered his arms. So she stepped forward and spoke. "Agent Cooper?"  
  
Something in his demeanour changed at the sound of her voice. He looked lost and confused, but was still unresponsive.  
  
Not discouraged, Audrey kept closing the gap between them until they were just a few steps apart. She wanted to touch him. But he seemed like a frightened animal. One wrong move and he would run back off into the forest. "It's okay. It's me. It's Audrey."  
  
"Audrey..." He said, finally. His voice was rough. Barely above a whisper, she almost wondered if she had dreamed him saying anything at all.

“It’s okay,” she replied, reaching out for him. “You’re home. You’re safe.”

When she took him into her embrace, it should have felt warm and safe. It should have felt like a lot of things. But something was wrong. She felt only dread as his arms slowly reached up and wrapped around her body.

He was squeezing too tight. “Agent Cooper, you’re hurting me.”

When he let go and she looked up at him, he was staring over her shoulder at the others with an indecipherable expression on his face.

“It’s alright, Mulder and Scully are with me,” she told him.

When his gaze returned to her face, he smiled. But it didn’t reach his eyes. “Audrey-”

There was a loud bang and Cooper was cut off. Audrey had screwed her eyes shut and, when she opened them, there was something on her face and in her mouth. She turned around and watched as Phillip Jeffries disappeared, a gun in his hand. When Mulder, Scully, and Sheriff Hawk rushed to her side - she was dimly aware of them speaking to her and of Agent Mulder holding her hands and touching her face.

But all she could see was Agent Cooper’s body, on the ground, the light of her fallen torch illuminating his dark, staring eyes and the gunshot wound in his temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA2bX_10nDU OR IS IT PAST?


End file.
